07/27/2026
Today’s adventure. Field trip to see the 2 Hannah Dustin statues. One in Boscawan NH the the other in Haverhill MA.
We live in a time where people are trying to erase history. Both monuments have already been vandalized in the past and there have been talks of removal or modification. So we found it important to visit these sites in person before it’s no longer an option.
Hannah Dustin lived in the 16 and 1700’s…. A brutal time for natives and settlers. War, bloodshed and heinous acts committed by both sides….
Hannah lived in Haverhill with her husband and many children. March 15, 1697 Hannahs village was raided by the Abanaki. She was 40 years old and had just given birth days before. She, her nurse and her infant were taken in the raid and held captive. I will spare you the gory and horrifying details, but her baby was killed right in front of her on their journey north as prisoners.
As a mother, I cannot imagine the horror… had just given birth, was kidnapped, watched her baby be brutally murdered, and did not know if her husband and multiple other children survived the raid ….
Hannah was fierce, a warrior in her own right. Just 15 days after her capture, she along with two other captives, escaped. She killed her captors, got a canoe and escape to safety with her nurse, and the young man that was also held captive from a previous raid.
As a mother, I cannot imagine the horror and pain this woman went through. She escaped down river back to Haverhill to find that miraculously her husband was able to save all of the other children during the raid.
She lived to be 80 years old and after her death 2 statues were resurrected in the late 1700s in her memory. One in Haverhill MA and one in Boscowen, New Hampshire, where the escape was believed to have happened on an island in the Merrimack river.
Today we went to both of these statues. We have studied Hannah for sometime now and while the story might make people uncomfortable it’s reality, it’s history and history can be brutal. That does not mean it should be erased or forgotten because it might hurt somebody’s feelings or make somebody uncomfortable. When we erase history, we don’t learn from it.
Aside from this beings interesting and fairly local history there’s another special connection for us, particularly my husband and my children.
They are related to Hannah. It’s all broken down in a family tree that I’d like to see someday.
While my heart breaks for all of the native and settler lives that were lost during many bloody battles during this time, I can’t help but sympathize and understand why Hannah did what she did. In fact I’d like to think that if God forbid I was ever in the same situation I would be just as fierce as she and I would do the same because that’s what a mother does for her children.
💕
