|
A textured retelling of the story of Eunice Williams, daughter of minister John Williams, who, along with the rest of her family, was abducted by a Mohawk war party during the French and Indian War, in February 1704.
The twist in the story comes in that Eunice, by most accounts, was at the center of decades of negotiation and attempts to "redeem" her. It eventually became clear, though, that she was not being held by the Mohawk against her will. She forgot English, had married within the Mohawk tribe and could not be persuaded to return to Deerfield, Massachusetts, the site of her original abduction.
The book explores the status of women in the two societies, and gives a nuanced picture of contact between native culture and that of the Pilgrim founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hers is an especially significant case, in part, since Eunice Williams' mother was a member of the famous Mather family, early founders and powerbrokers in Plymouth and other parts of the early Massachusetts Bay colony.
| 
