Wilmont Kreis

More questions about Indians and captive children: Did the captive children really want to stay with the Indians and not return home?

Actually the answer was frequently, yes. Many of the children stayed with the Indians in spite of family efforts, sometimes relentless, to redeem them. Most of these were with the Iroquois. The Algonquin were much more willing to return the children and women, usually for money. Young Samuel Price would be an example, but the Iroquois were not usually so inclined. In addition, the children with the Iroquois did not seem to want to leave—I suspect the truth is somewhere in between the will of the children and the will of the Natives. Perhaps the children preferred the Indian society to that of the Puritans. Mary Field, Mercy Carter, Abigail French and Hannah Hurst were among those who stayed and married Indian men. Some returned to visit Deerfield as adults but then returned to their villages. Reverend John Williams’ Daughter, Eunice, was sought after by the tireless efforts of her family and particularly her influential father, but she repeatedly refused to leave her adopted home and village. This is well chronicled in the excellent academic work, THE UNREDEEMED CAPTIVE, by John Demos, 1994.
In addition, several women and children chose to remain with the French. In addition to Elizabeth Price were Thankful Stebbins, Freedom French and Martha French who married the young stonemason, Jacques Roi. Their Grandson became the first Archbishop of Québec. Read More 

More Questions: Did Makya only want a wife? This seems odd.

Of the three cultures involved, the French wanted land for the fur trade and the English wanted land for the large number of people coming to the new world. But the wants of the Indians were more complex and multifaceted. And yes, Makya’s sole reason for joining the raid was a wife.

Both the Algonquin and Iroquois had interest in land particularly maintaining the land they had not yet lost to the Europeans. The Iroquois had a greater interest as their culture was agrarian and they traditionally remained on their land as contrasted with Algonquins who had a more mobile hunting and gathering society. Both groups sought captives to replace those lost to European wars and disease. Generally men were taken to be slaves or occasionally killed for revenge. Women and children were wanted to replace those vital lost and loved members of the tribes. Makya had lost his wife and child and was merely looking to replace them. Fortunately for Elizabeth, his gentle and charitable nature caused him to change his plan. More about children next week. Read More 

More Fearful Passage questions: Does Deerfield still exist?

Not only does it exist, but the site of the original village is restored as Historic Deerfield and is well worth visiting for a day or more. Although it represents the village as it was some years after 1704 and the Fearful Passage North, it does have abundant material concerning the raid. One can stroll down the town road past the homes to the north meadow where Lizzie took her cows and met Andrew in the woods that still provide cover to the Deerfield River. Tours are available and there is a museum, library and book store. You can stay at the classic Deerfield Inn which I highly recommend. Their website, www.historic-deerfield.org is very helpful. Read More 

More Andrew questions: Were his ancestors really French Huguenots?

We really don’t know, but a many of these French Protestants fled to England during the wars of religion and many became Puritan and ultimately fled to the colonies. Francis Marion who was the inspiration for the movie, THE PATRIOT, came from such a family. Since Andrew had spent significant portions of his life in all three of the cultures of the time and place: Puritan Protestant, Native American and French-Canadian Catholic, he was the ideal person to explain the differences and similarities to Lizzie. Adding French Huguenot made him even more interesting. Next time I’ll leave Andrew for a while to field other questions. Read More 

Carrie asked, “Why is Jacques de Noyon sometimes spelled with a small d and sometimes with a capital D?”

French last (family) names sometimes begin with an article or preposition. For instance, in LeDuc, “le” is the article “the”. In De Noyon, “De” is the preposition “from”. This can be spelled as one word, (Denoyon), or two, (De Noyon) as Jacques spells it. If it is spelled as two words, the “de” is lowercase IF it is preceded by a first name (Jacques de Noyon) or uppercase if the last name only is used (De Noyon). There are other exceptions, but this is confusing enough.
At any rate, De Noyon means “from Noyon” a town north and east of Paris, and LeDuc means “the Duke” and LeMieux, “the best.”
I will return to the question of Andrew the Indian next time. Read More 

Andrew Stevens and Jacques de Noyon:
The unusual appearance of De Noyon along with two other Frenchmen and an Indian in 1702 is well accepted by historians. Andrew being the Indian was too good to be a coincidence. The time, place and circumstances fit perfectly with the plot of FEARFUL PASSAGE NORTH. The two Frenchmen are not named in the history books but did stay with De Noyon and were taken with De Noyon, his new wife Abigail and Lizzie on the raid. I took the liberty of naming them LeDuc and LeMieux. The Indian is not named but many scholars think it was Andrew. Interestingly, there is no mention of the Indian on the march to Montréal, so this fits with Andrew’s death in the raid.  Read More 

More who was Andrew Stevens:
If he was not and Indian, what was he?
One of the more recent and certainly most complete academic histories of the Deerfield Raid is CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES… by Haefeli and Sweeney, 2003. I referred to it frequently in researching Lizzie and Andrew’s stories. They propose Andrew was more likely to be a young Puritan boy named Stevens or Stephens taken from Pemaquid, Maine in one of the era’s numerous Indian raids with his older sister, Katharine. This boy was christened Samuel, but it appears he shows up being baptized near Quebec as André. I chose to keep him ‘Andrew’ throughout to avoid confusion. The age and circumstances of this lad seem to match Andrew very well and help solve the mystery about the Indian identity. Read More 

Questions: Shannon asked, “Was Andrew Stevens really an Indian?”

This has been debated by Deerfield scholars for centuries and my views will take a few posts to explain. Two of the early works on Deerfield: C. Alice Baker, TRUE STORIES OF NEW ENGLAND CAPTIVES CARRIED TO CANADA…, 1897, and George Sheldon, A HISTORY OF DEERFIELD MASSACHUSETTS…, 1896, refer to Andrew Stephens (both spellings, Stevens and Stephens, are found) as “The Indian” but they also state this is probably the only case found in the history of Puritan New England. My old professor once told me, if someone describes something that only happened once, the safe bet is that it did not happen at all.
Since both references were penned almost two centuries after the fact, we are forced to ponder: what was the primary source? An astute reader and Deerfield scholar fortunate enough to live in western Massachusetts, has gone to the archives of Deerfield and found a facsimile of Andrew and Elizabeth’s marriage record: a simple listing of names and dates, but next to Andrew’s name is a barely perceptible mark which when scrutinized seems to say INDIAN. I am attaching it. The mark is circled but doesn't show well here (take my word for it). Anyway, it is written with a different instrument and a different style, indicating it was not written at the time of the original document.
So where does this lead us? Was it written ten minutes later, or two-hundred years later??? More to come as the plot thickens—stay tuned. Read More 

More Questions—Julie asked: Did Puritan towns have schools like Dame Beaman’s?
Yes, Schools such as Dame Beaman’s taught boys and girls until the age of ten. Towns with 50 or more homes were required to have schools. After this the boys could continue in a school with a headmaster. Dame Beaman was a real person and her legend lives on in the literature of Deerfield. She and her husband were taken captive and eventually returned to New England. Initially she taught from her home on the North end of town but later, as reflected in the story, a new school building was built with quarters for her school as well as separate quarters for the older boys’ school. It would have been common for some older girls to assist her. Read More 

More Questions:
Diane asked: I finished the Fearful Passage North. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, wasn't ready for it to end. Could actually pick it up again and re-read. Question for you: Did the Puritan towns really have taverns?

Yes, taverns were generally in town close to the town square or commons. In fall 1674 Moses Crafts was given license to keep an ordinary, term for tavern at Deerfield. Beer wine and liquor were served and were generally safer than water. Brothels also existed, but generally outside of the town. Prostitution and drunkenness were looked unfavorably upon. Crafts appears to be gone by 1704 and Potter and his playful sister are two of the few fictitious characters in Fearful Passage North. Read More