The attack on Haverhill, Massachusetts in March 1697 followed the awesome pattern: surprise, pillage, murder, destruction by fire and silent withdrawal into the forest. Among the prisoners taken by the Abenaki on this occasion was Hannah Dustin. One night during the long trek to Canada, Hannah and two companions -- another woman and a boy picked up hatchets and administered deadly blows to their captors as they lay sleeping. Then, before setting out on the return journey to Haverhill, Hannah took a knife and lifted the scalps of her victims. Just as the French settlers had reacted to the Iroquois terror a generation earlier, so the terrorized English settlers responded with violence to the savagery perpetrated on their frontier.
Courtesy: Edward E. Ayer Collection, The Newberry Library, Chicago
