Eunice Kanenstenhawi Williams
Eunice Kanenstenhawi Williams | |
---|---|
Born | 17 September 1696 Deerfield, Massachusetts |
Died | 26 November 1785 Kahnawake, Quebec | (aged 89)
Eunice Williams, also known as Marguerite Kanenstenhawi Arosen, (17 September 1696 – 26 November 1785) was an English colonist taken captive by
Early life and education
Eunice Williams was born on 17 September 1696, the daughter of the
The attackers killed numerous settlers in their houses, including Eunice's younger brother John Williams, Jr. and six-week-old sister Jerusha. They took captive more than 100 settlers, including 7-year-old Eunice, her parents, and four of her siblings. The captives were taken on a strenuous march northward. The next day, a Mohawk warrior killed her mother after she fell while crossing the icy waters of the Green River. Other children and elderly captives were also killed if they could not keep up with the large party.[1]
Eunice and the surviving members of her family reached
When the survivors of Deerfield learned their captured relatives and neighbors were in Quebec, they began negotiations through various intermediaries to ransom them. During these years, Rev. Williams was allowed to meet with Eunice on two occasions; both times, he responded to her requests for guidance by telling her to recite the Puritan Catechism.[1]
Later life
When John Williams was ransomed and freed about three years later, he wanted to have Eunice reunited with him. The French told an intermediary it was impossible because the Mohawks who adopted her "would as soon part with their hearts as the child." The French government would not generally interfere when the Mohawk adopted captives, even if they were European. He managed to retrieve his other children,[a] who returned to live in Massachusetts.[1]
Eunice became fully assimilated into Mohawk culture, and at 16 married a 25-year-old Mohawk man, François-Xavier Arosen. They had three children together. Nonetheless, Rev. Williams, succeeded by his son Stephen, continued through the years to try to ransom and later persuade Eunice to rejoin her New England family.[1]
Eunice, called Kanenstenhawi ("She who brings corn") as an adult Mohawk, eventually visited New England in 1741, after her father had died. Her brother Stephen had kept in touch with her. When Eunice and her husband went to Massachusetts, it was with a guide and interpreter, as they spoke only Mohawk and French. She made two more visits to her Williams family, bringing her children with her and one year staying for an extended period through the winter.[1]
Timeline
Notes
- ^ Eunice's siblings who survived the raid and trek to Canada with her were Samuel (15), Esther (13), Stephen (9), and Warham (4). The Williams' eldest child, Eleazer (16), was away studying for the ministry and not living at Deerfield at the time of the raid. The other Williams children were eventually returned to New England.
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-394-55782-3.
Printed matter
- Haefeli, Evan and Kevin Sweeney. "Revisiting the Redeemed Captive: New Perspectives on the 1704 Attack on Deerfield," in After King Philip's War, Presence and Persistence in Indian New England. Colin G. Calloway, editor. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1997, pp. 28–71. ISBN 0-87451-819-9(pbk.: alk. paper)
- ISBN 0-393-00830-4
- ISBN 0-679-44686-9(hc)
- Melvoin, Richard I., New England Outpost, War and Society in Colonial Deerfield. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1989. ISBN 0-393-02600-0
- Sheldon, George. A History of Deerfield Massachusetts: The Times when and the People by whom it was Settled, Unsettled, and Resettled, with a Special Study of the Indian Wars in the Connecticut Valley. With Genealogies, Deerfield, MA 1895 (two volumes)
- Williams, John, edited by Edward W. Clark. The Redeemed Captive. Amherst, Massachusetts: The ISBN 0-87023-217-7(Note: Williams first published this book in 1707.)
External links
- A Historic and Present Day Guide to Old Deerfield
- Historic Deerfield
- Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association
- The Captivation of Eunice Williams
- A Sermon Preach'd at Mansfield, August 4, 1741 -"The Power and Efficacy of the Prayers of the People of GOD"
- Eunice Williams' husband Arosen was one of the Mohawk negotiators of the "Treaty of Kahnawake"
- "Eunice Williams", Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- "The Deerfield Raid", Canadian Encyclopedia Online