ePub The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Book 2 Sabha Parva by Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa in History

Description

Early on March 15; 1697; a band of Abenaki warriors in service to the French raided the English frontier village of Haverhill; Massachusetts. Striking swiftly; the Abenaki killed twenty-seven men; women; and children; and took thirteen captives; including thirty-nine-year-old Hannah Duston and her week-old daughter; Martha. A short distance from the village; one of the warriors murdered the squalling infant by dashing her head against a tree. After a forced march of nearly one hundred miles; Duston and two companions were transferred to a smaller band of Abenaki; who camped on a tiny island located at the junction of the Merrimack and Contoocook Rivers; several miles north of present day Concord; New Hampshire. This was the height of King William’s War; both a war of terror and a religious contest; with English Protestantism vying for control of the New World with French Catholicism. After witnessing her infant’s murder; Duston resolved to get even. Two weeks into their captivity; Duston and her companions; a fifty-one-year-old woman and a twelve-year-old boy; moved among the sleeping Abenaki with tomahawks and knives; killing two men; two women; and six children. After returning to the bloody scene alone to scalp their victims; Duston and the others escaped down the Merrimack River in a stolen canoe. They braved treacherous waters and the constant threat of attack and recapture; returning to tell their story and collect a bounty for the scalps. Was Hannah Duston the prototypical feminist avenger; or the harbinger of the Native American genocide? In this meticulously researched and riveting narrative; bestselling author Jay Atkinson sheds new light on the early struggle for North America.