Exercise:  The French and Indian Raid on Deerfield Massachusetts, 1704

Instructions: Navigate to the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association and Memorial Hall Museum's website, “Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704,” at the URL below. Explore the site, which examines the 1704 raid on the English village of Deerfield Massachusetts by a force of French and Native Americans from the perspective of all groups involved. Move through this online exhibition, from the section introducing the region through the narrative of the raid and its aftermaths. Be sure to utilize the site features that allow you to examine particular events from the perspectives of the various groups involved. As you explore the exhibition, answer the following questions.

Visit URL: Indians, Colonists, and War in New England: The 1704 Deerfield Raid

Question 1:  What differences are there in the narratives of the Deerfield events from each of the five different perspectives on the site? What significant differences do we see between the European and Native American perspectives? What differences are there among the three different Native perspectives? What do these differences tell us, as historians, about how point of view can influence historical sources?

Question 2:  Why was captivity such an important part of the tactics of European-Native warfare during this era? How would you describe the level of suffering and severity experienced by the colonists who were held as captives? What do you think were the most difficulty aspects of captivity? What strategies and practices were these captives able to use to not only survive, but to try and accommodate to their circumstances?

Question 3:  Many of the colonists taken captive in the Deerfield Raid were eventually “redeemed,” and returned to their homes and communities. But over two dozen of them did not return, remaining in French or native settlements. Looking at the evidence that we have about the captives—both those who were redeemed and those who weren't—what do you think the reasons were for those captives who refused to return to their original homes? Why would they have chosen to remain with their captors? What does this tell us about colonial culture in this period?

Question 4:  Historians have developed the concept of a “middle ground” to describe the zones where European colonists and Native Americans came together, or lived closely to one another, on terms of at least rough equality; this was an area where economic and cultural interactions occurred on somewhat of a level playing field. But the Deerfield Raid—and its origins—exhibits the potential for conflict and violence that could be part of these interactions on the “middle ground.” Describe the ways in which this relative proximity and ease of interaction between colonists, French, and Native Americans created a climate that made such violent outbreaks as the Deerfield Raid possible.