The full title is “The Deerfield Massacre: A Surprise Attack, a Forced March, and the Fight for Survival in Early America”.
The title on the NetGalley site immediately grabbed my attention. I had done a little research about an ancestor whom I had yet to investigate. There is always the possibility in genealogy research that someone linked a person to an event simply because the surnames matched.
At first, I just started reading The Deerfield Massacre as I would any other book. From the beginning, I knew this was not a writer who thought this would be an interesting topic. James L. Swason is a researcher extraordinaire. If I lived in Boston or the surrounding areas, I would register for the American Ancestors event on March 11th where “following an illustrated presentation, the acclaimed historian will be in dialogue with genealogist-moderator David Allen Lambert and answer your questions.”
This book of history — do not mistake this for historical fiction or a novel based on a historical fact — is not an easy book to read because of the intensity of the raid. The brutality of it. And the forced march into Canada of those who did survive. I cannot describe what it is like to read a book like this when it was your ancestor who was one of the victims.
The Deerfield Massacre is not a dry history book. The writing pulls you into the events as they happened. The terror. Why had the Indians lived in “peace” with the people and then conducted this raid? The first houses were built on a trail that had been used by the Pocumtuck Indians. It was a crossroads on an east-west route used by the Indiana tribes, Mohawks and Mohicans. Did just putting a town on the route used by the Indians aggravate them in some way? Why wasn’t there more than one man on watch that fateful night when the town had been warned of possible/probable Indiana raids? Were all of the town residents Puritans? What were the houses like? Were there any books in the town?
You see I have a direct ancestor who was killed during the massacre. His name was John Catlin; Joseph Catlin is his son, one of ten (known) children. I am descended from his daughter Hannah who had married and left the Deerfield area before the massacre. A monument to the massacred victims is shown to the right from John Catlin’s Findagrave page.
You’ll find the surname Mather mentioned several times — Samuel (Deerfield’s first minister), Increase Mather, Cotton Mather (who performed the marriage ceremony for one of my ancestors). Of course, surnames that have a genealogical meaning to me pop off my Kindle as if they were highlighted.
When a horrific event such as The Deerfield Massacre, the interest includes “what happened next”. Mr Swanson provides details of the survivors being force-marched 300 miles into Canada, including who survived that march. Did any return to the colonies? Yes, some even to Deerfield. A key person is Rev. John Williams who eventually wrote a memoir, The Redeemed Captive. That book heavily influenced James L. Swason’s interest in the massacre. Rev. Williams was the minister of the Deerfield town at the time of the massacre. You’ll read with some interest what happened to his seven-year-old daughter, also forced to march.
The Deerfield Massacre is a MUST READ for genealogists and should be in every genealogy society library. It will be part of my genealogy library as I have much to re-read and reference on my genealogy website* (citations, of course). And those who love history should add this to your reading list.
I received a complimentary DRC (digital review copy) of The Deerfield Masacre via NetGalley from the publisher, Scribner. A positive review was not required; the opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
Rating: 5 stars
Cover: Grabbing. It’s the real door that still remains in Deerfield.
Pages: 336
Publish Date: 27 Feb 2024
#TheDeerfieldMassacre #NetGalley #JamesLSwanson
* Link to ancestor on my genealogy website: https://idogenealogy.info/tng/getperson.php?personID=I262&tree=cl