4. Women on the Massachusetts frontier were considered valuable to both sides
When Abenaki warriors struck Haverhill, Massachusetts, on March 15, 1697, they found, to their immense satisfaction, more than just men to kill and buildings to burn. There were no crops yet in the fields, no fruit on the trees. The snows of the New England winter still covered much of the ground, especially where it had accrued in deep piles over the course of the season. What they found at the Duston farm just outside of the settlement of Haverhill were several women, including Hannah Duston, then 40 years of age, and her friend and neighbor, Mary Neff. According to local tradition, Hannah had only weeks before given birth, and her infant was either captured as well, or killed by the Indians during the raid. Others claim the child was of Mary Neff. At any rate, it did not survive the coming ordeal.
Although much has been made of it in fiction and folklore since, the Indians of the colonial period did not usually slaughter women they encountered on their raids, recognizing them as valuable, either as hostages for ransom or slaves used for wives and pack animals. Women could be made to carry the loot taken during a raid, thus freeing the warriors from duties considered less than manly. Children – at least children capable of transporting themselves on foot – were also valuable as labor and hostages, though they tended to become troublesome on the trail and were thus frequently dispatched. Thus some young children survived captivity while most did not. Hannah and Mary, captured by the Abenaki, were forced to travel north, through what was for the most part still winter, bound for the Abenaki villages near the Saint Lawrence River. They went by way of the Merrimack.