Introducing Hannah Duston...

[miguel]

Despite being an amateur historian for several decades, I have to say I never heard about this woman. Earlier today, I ran across her by accident and think hers is a tale that needs to be told!

"Hannah Duston was the first American woman to have a statue built in her honor. Today, what she did to deserve it might be called, by some, an atrocity."

https://newengland.com/today/living/new-england-history/hannah-duston-scalped-indians/

 

[spencer rifle]

Fascinating.

 

[thej27]

I have heard of her before in this great book
https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Hi...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1486659547&sr=8-5
The Forgotten History of America: Little Known Conflicts of Lasting Importance from the Earliest Colonists to the Eve of the Revolution

It has a lot of early history I have never heard of including attempts at gun control.

 

[Spear Dane]

I wonder which is the atrocity; the killing or the scalping? Can't blame a mother for doing either to people that killed her child.

 

[indiucky]

Thanks for sharing that Miguel...I portrayed a British Indian Agent of the 1780's for a couple of years at the Battle of Blue Licks and various other events (And a film about the Siege of Boonesboro) for about ten years....During that time I read a number of first person accounts of capture by the captives and I guess because this event was in New England (and about 90 years earlier than I normally do) that her tale must have escaped me...Thank you for sharing this...

I try to explain to people that the whole "Indians were just peace loving people trying to get along with folks" is a bit more complicated than that....The natives (especially in the East) were very formidable warriors and statesmen who, for two hundred years, played the Spanish, Dutch, French and English off of each other in a way that would make Machivelli or the Borgia's of Italy proud......

It's way more complicated than "Indians=Good and Whites=bad" (or visa versa...)

A couple of Natives played a 23 year old George Washington like piano and in the process started the first World War in history, The Seven Years War or as it is known here the French and Indian War...

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-blood-of-the-french-and-indian-war


n 1754 Washington's surprise attack upon a smallFrench force at Jumonville Glen and his subsequent surrender to French forces at the Battle of Fort Necessity helped to spark the French & Indian War. The following year, Washington accompanied Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock on his ill-fated march on Fort Duquesne.


Very nice...Thanks for posting....

 

[miguel]

I wonder which is the atrocity; the killing or the scalping? Can't blame a mother for doing either to people that killed her child.

Well, ya swing a baby into a tree because it's crying, ya got it coming in my book. Ditto for the modern baby shakers.

 

[indiucky]

Well, ya swing a baby into a tree because it's crying, ya got it coming in my book. Ditto for the modern baby shakers.

That seemed to be their "go to method" of dealing with crying babies according to the accounts I have read...They were very matter of fact about it actually...As best as I can ascertain they looked at life a bit more cavalier than other cultures...

 

[miguel]

Thanks for sharing that Miguel...I portrayed a British Indian Agent of the 1780's for a couple of years at the Battle of Blue Licks and various other events (And a film about the Siege of Boonesboro) for about ten years....During that time I read a number of first person accounts of capture by the captives and I guess because this event was in New England (and about 90 years earlier than I normally do) that her tale must have escaped me...Thank you for sharing this...

I try to explain to people that the whole "Indians were just peace loving people trying to get along with folks" is a bit more complicated than that....The natives (especially in the East) were very formidable warriors and statesmen who, for two hundred years, played the Spanish, Dutch, French and English off of each other in a way that would make Machivelli or the Borgia's of Italy proud......

It's way more complicated than "Indians=Good and Whites=bad" (or visa versa...)

A couple of Natives played a 23 year old George Washington like piano and in the process started the first World War in history, The Seven Years War or as it is known here the French and Indian War...

First blood of the French and Indian War - May 28, 1754 - HISTORY.com


n 1754 Washington's surprise attack upon a smallFrench force at Jumonville Glen and his subsequent surrender to French forces at the Battle of Fort Necessity helped to spark the French & Indian War. The following year, Washington accompanied Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock on his ill-fated march on Fort Duquesne.


Very nice...Thanks for posting....

Happy you found it so interesting! On a side note, I am wearing this tshirt at the moment. I'm sure very few people will get it, but I think it is funny as hell!

 

[Woobie]

That is fascinating! Thank you

 

[indiucky]

Happy you found it so interesting! On a side note, I am wearing this tshirt at the moment. I'm sure very few people will get it, but I think it is funny as hell!

That is awesome!!!! We had some Girty Brothers T Shirts made up when I was portraying Matthew Elliott...It listed our services on the back and ended with..

"Kentuckians...The other White Meat..."

The folks portraying the Kentuckians at Blue Licks thought that T Shirt was in poor taste....

That's me in the Red Coat...

Here I am in my woods running gear giving a talk to a local Historical Society...

And meeting Thomas D. Clark, the famous Kentuckian Historian after the Battle of Blue Licks...

And posing with my little cousin after The Pigeon Roost Massacre..

 

[T.Lex]

Wow.

I just double checked, and my ancestors lived across the river from Haverhill at that same time period. They would've certainly known of her. Crazy.

 

[indiucky]

Wow.

I just double checked, and my ancestors lived across the river from Haverhill at that same time period. They would've certainly known of her. Crazy.

That's cool tlex....

 

[miguel]

Wow.

I just double checked, and my ancestors lived across the river from Haverhill at that same time period. They would've certainly known of her. Crazy.

Far out!

Talk about women's lib... LOL

 

[87iroc]

A cool story of what life was really like.

I like how she looked at the story through the 'vision of the times'...or whatever. That is absolutely right. Too many people looking and rewriting history based on hindsite and what new attitudes about different topics have become.

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

That's some grip Mr. Clark has there.

 

[Woobie]

Wow.

I just double checked, and my ancestors lived across the river from Haverhill at that same time period. They would've certainly known of her. Crazy.

Your ancestors weren't Algonquin were they?

 

[Woobie]

A cool story of what life was really like.

I like how she looked at the story through the 'vision of the times'...or whatever. That is absolutely right. Too many people looking and rewriting history based on hindsite and what new attitudes about different topics have become.

Yes, I really appreciated the perspective taken. Not saying it's right to scalp someone. But apparently there was financial encouragement from the government to do so. And it isn't like they needed their hair anymore.

 

[femurphy77]

Interesting read! I just scanned some of the comments and one of them questioned the necessity of killing all members of the raiding party including what was described as several children. If you're old enough to kill. . . .

 

[T.Lex]

Your ancestors weren't Algonquin were they?

haha

No. At least, not those.

From what we can tell, those who were there in 1697 were at least 2d or 3rd generation New Englanders.

Further south, we had 2d-3rd generation New Amsterdam kin.

I don't think they got along very well....

 

[Woobie]

haha

No. At least, not those.

From what we can tell, those who were there in 1697 were at least 2d or 3rd generation New Englanders.

Further south, we had 2d-3rd generation New Amsterdam kin.

I don't think they got along very well....

At some point they got along, otherwise there wouldn't be a you!