Captive Histories: English, French, and Native Narratives of the 1704 Deerfield Raid

Editorial Procedures

xix editorial procedures T  brings together a variety of texts written down in three different languages, from four distinct cultures and spanning over three centuries from 1684 to the present. To ensure that they are all equally accessible to modern readers, we have modernized the spelling, punctuation, and grammar of all of the texts. In all cases we have indicated where the originals of these texts can be found so that interested readers can examine them and compare our edited versions with the originals. Many of these texts have not been published before. In manuscript, these texts contain abbreviations, edits, and incomplete sentences. We have smoothed out the rough spots in these texts, filling in missing letters, correcting grammar, and inserting words where necessary to complete a sentence or clarify its meaning . Where we have inserted a word or phrase to clarify meaning we have placed it within brackets. Otherwise we have not indicated where letters had to be inserted to fill out words and to correct grammar. The translations from the French are our own. In order to downplay the foreignness of these texts, we have anglicized the terms and phrases as much as possible without distorting the meaning of the original texts. To keep the texts familiar for an English-speaking audience, we have employed the common English names for various Native peoples. Thus we use Mohawk, Huron, and Abenaki rather than Kanienkehaka, Wendat, and Wôbanakiak, the names by which these people refer to themselves in their own languages (see appendix A). Because the generic term Indian was and remains widely used to describe the original inhabitants of the Americas and their descendants, we have allowed it to stand in many instances. Often we use Native (with a capital N) in place of the relatively modern term Native American. The word Sauvage was employed by the French in the colonial period, with connotations closer to those of the English word Indian than of savage, though both colonial French and colonial English used Sauvage and Indian to describe peoples they recognized as different and often saw as inferior. While acknowledging the implications inherent in these terms, we intend no insult when we retain such terms in the original texts. Wherever possible, we have tried to refer to a specific group or individual in question by a specific name. As should be clear, these distinctions were very important, and a generic word of any sort, be it Indian or Native American often obscures significant differences among Native peoples. Dating presents another challenge because of the difference in the calendars employed by the English and the French. The English still used the Julian calendar , which was eleven days behind the Gregorian used by most western European countries, including France (and is the one we use today). According to the Julian calendar the new year began on March 25 rather than January 1. English documents between January 1 and March 25 were often written with both years; thus, the English recorded the date of the Deerfield raid as February 29, 1703/04; for the French, the raid occurred on March 11, 1704. In all of the English documents reproduced in this volume and in the related head notes and footnotes, we have retained the Julian or Old Style dates, except where noted, though we give the year as beginning on January 1. The dates in the French documents and the related footnotes are Gregorian, or New Style. xx    Captive HistoRies M 1. The Northeast, circa 1660–1725. ...