Following in Hannah Duston’s Footsteps: Reexamining the Evidence

Historical New Hampshire, Vol. 69, No 1, Summer 2015

I am happy to announce that my non-fiction article, “Following in Hannah Duston’s Footsteps: Reexamining the Evidence” will appear in Historical New Hampshire’s Summer 2015 issue. Included are many of my ‘finds’ that that I’ve researched over the past ten years (for my middle grade novel Look One Way, Paddle Another), new information that put the events in context and questions old beliefs. I look at the evidence for the timeline and disprove dates long held dear, reimagine her trip north and the location of the massacre, and dispute the claim that the bounty had expired!  If you’re interested in Hannah Duston or just a New England History groupie, I hope you’ll take a look.

Hannah Duston was kidnapped from Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1697 by Indians, her baby killed, and she was marched north through New Hampshire for 150 miles before she (and two other captives) killed ten of her captors (two men, two women and six children). She and her compatriots, returned home with scalps in hand and allegedly collected a ‘bounty’. (Honest. I can’t make this stuff up.) To find out which parts of the legend are true, you’ll have to read my article.