Hannah Dustin
1657–1736
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Hannah was living a comfortable life in her colonial Massachusetts home when the settlement was attacked by Abenaki Indians. Her husband and eight children managed to escape, but she, her infant daughter, and her nurse were captured and forcibly taken back to the Indians’ camp. Her daughter was immediately taken and killed against a tree, but Hannah and her nurse were led further north, where they were joined by a 14-year-old captive. After journeying for several days, the natives stopped to rest for the night, and Hannah and her consorts immediately set upon them and killed ten of the twelve present, using the Indians’ own tomahawks as weapons. They traveled downriver back to their hometown, taking the Abenakis’ scalps as proof and to collect a bounty for their deed. They were rewarded for killing the raiders, and Hannah was later immortalized in literature by both Cotton Mather and Henry David Thoreau.
Key events during the life of Hannah Dustin:
| Born in colonial New England | |
| Haverhill, MA was attacked by Abenaki Indians; Hannah was captured | |
| Hannah killed and scalped Indians before returning home | |
| Magnalia Christi Americana was published, featuring the story of her bravery | |
| Died | |
| Monument was erected in memory of her |
Other Resources
| Hannah Dustin in | America First—100 Stories from Our History by Lawton B. Evans |
| Indians on the Warpath in | Story of the Thirteen Colonies by H. A. Guerber |
Image Links | ||
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For fifteen days the Indians required Mrs. Dustin and in America First—100 Stories from Our History |
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| Fended off a tribe of Indians attacking her for when she was only fourteen. | |
| Cotton Mather | Puritan minister in colonial New England who was a prolific writer and pamphleteer. |
| Quaker, and founder of the colony of Pennsylvania. | |
| Founded Maryland, with the goal of providing a haven of religous tolerance in the new world. |