Hannah UNKNOWN

  General Notes:

Officials in Haverhill, Essex County, Mass., were thinking about honoring Hannah Duston, a woman they call a hometown heroine, by naming an elementary school after her. Hannah, the wife of Paige Duston, was taken hostage in 1697 after an Indian attack, but turned on her captors and killed ten of them. Some say naming the school after her would be a mistake because of the bloody way she gained her fame.

In March 1697, Abenaki Indians from Quebec raided the outskirts of Haverhill and killed 27 people. They took 15 captives, including Mrs. Duston and her five day old son. In a forced 15-day trek north, the captors killed the crying infant by bashing his head against a tree. But from there the story gets muddled.

In the traditional tale, Mrs. Duston, late one night, courageously killed and scalped her captors while they slept, freeing herself, her nurse and a child. She returned to Haverhill with 10 scalps. But many historians argue that Mrs. Duston was bloodthirsty. Of the 10 Indians she killed, most were women and children, and she collected a bounty for the scalps she brought back.

She was the first woman ever honored with a monument in the United States, and
Haverhill has several sites commemerating her and is a source of "local pride".

Hannah married.