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Mary Corliss Neff Nickerson left no sourcesfor his Mary Corliss NejJstory, but there are numerous options from the storehouse of material on Mary's companion, Hannah Duston (also spelled Dustin, Dustan, and Dustun). The primary sourcesfor this are Cotton Mather and Samuel Sewall who interviewed Hannah Duston. Of the three times Mather set pen to this account, I recommend Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, 110lume 1, 4th book, 550-52 and Samuel Sewal~ "Diary,1I 1: 452-53. Among the scholars who have reviewed the primary, secondary, and literary sources on Hannah and her two companions, see Robert D. Amer, "The Story of Hannah Duston: Cotton Mather to Thoreau1l; Glenn Todd, "Introduction,1I in Captivity Narrative of Hannah Duston related by Cotton Mather, John Greenleaf Whittier, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau, four versions of events in 1697, interspersed with thirty-five wood-block prints by Richard Bosman; and Kathryn Whitford, "Hannah Dustin: The Judgement of History. 11 Also of interest is Mary Harrower Morse, "Murderess or Heroine?1I and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives ofWomen in Northern New England 1650-1750. Among early secondary sources which Nickerson might ha11e used, see Robert B. Caverly, Heroism of Hannah Duston, together with The Indian Wars of New England; George Wingate Chase, The History of Haverhill, Massachusetts; and B. L. Mirick, History ofHaverhill, Massachusetts. Thegenre ofthe captivity narrative interested several prominent literary figures. The evolution ofhistorical judgment on the trio ofcaptives seems to be what most interests scholars in addressing the literary works. (Six ofthe ten scalped were children, evoking the issue ofgenocide. Only two were men. W. Sears Nickerson does not make a point ofthis.) Later writers made Mr. Duston the hero, not one sU88esting what is apparent to me that his action of 109 110 War in the Colonies, 1690-1745 turning away from the direct conflict and following the children could be interpreted as less than noble. Nathaniel Hawthorne in "The Escape ofthe Dustons» called Cotton Mather "an old hard-hearted, pedantic bigot» and said ofHannah, "Would that the bloody old hag had been drowned in crossing Contocook river, or that she had sunk over head and ears in the swamp, and been there buried, till summoned forth to confront her victims at the day ofJudgment. ... » John Greenleaf Whittier in "The Mother's Revenge» granted her temporary insanity, "It was the thirst ofrevenge; and from that moment her purpose wasfixed. There was a thought ofdeath at her heartan insatiate longing for blood. An instantaneous change had been wrought in her very nature; the angel had become a demon,-and she followed her captors, with a stern determination to embrace the earliest opportunityfor a bloody retribution.» Henry David Thoreau in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers gives a straightforward recording ofthe traditionalfacts. The subject matter found its way into various artforms. The first statue was erected at Haverhill in 1861 in marble (five feet square and twentyfour feet high), said to be the first statue ever erected in this country to honor a woman; there is another in marble at the confluence of the Merrimack and Contocook rivers, Penacook, New Hampshire, done in 1874 by William Andrews, and there is a bronze one on the Haverhill Commons ofHannah by Calvin H. Weeks, 1879. A granite boulder (1908) marks the site where Hannah was living at the time ofher death. Matthew Thornton Chapter of the D.A.R. in 1902 erected a marker to point out the land ofJohn Lovewell, where Hannah spent the night after her escape from the Indians at Penacook Island. Similarly, a bronze tablet in front of Col. Tyngs' house, Tyngsboro, marks the location ofHannah'sfirst night after captivity. A mill stone in Haverhill on the Merrimack River was erected by Ezra W. B. Taylor to mark the landing Place ofHannah on her return from captivity. The Haverhill Historical Society has the hatchet head she used to scalp the Native Americans, her darning needle, a bowl, a coverlet made by her, and her letter asking permission to join the church, a letter whose controversy split the congregation. In addition to Richard Bosman's wood-block prints and certainly among others are the engraving of the raid by John W. Barber, 1841 and G. W. Fasel's "Duston Covering the Retreat of His Seven Children,» 1851, currently in the Haverhill Public Library. In light of the large body of material, I will reference primarily those facts having to do with...

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