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It was once one of the most famous events in early American history. Today, it is almost forgotten.
In an obscure two-hundred-year-old museum in a small village in western Massachusetts lies what was once the most revered but now completely forgotten relic of early New England history: the massive door marked with a tomahawk which came to symbolize the famous Deerfield massacre. This impregnable barricade – known to early Americans as "The Old Indian Gate" – constructed from double-thick planks of Massachusetts oak and studded with hand-forged iron nails to repel the waving tomahawk blades of several attacking native tribes, is the only surviving artifact from the most dramatic moment in American colonial history: leap year, February 29, 1704, a cold, snowy night during which hundreds of Native Americans and their French allies descended on an isolated border outpost and mercilessly massacred its inhabitants.
The sacking of Deerfield gave birth to one of the greatest sagas of adventure, survival, sacrifice, family, honor and faith ever told in North America. 112 survivors, including their intrepid minister, Reverend John Williams, were captured and led on a 300-mile forced march north into enemy territory in Canada. Any captives who hesitated or became too weak to continue the journey – including Williams' own wife and any of his children – fell to the knife or tomahawk.
The survivors of the march wanted to live and endured captivity. Ransomed by the Royal Governor of Massachusetts from the King of England, the captives later returned home to Deerfield, rebuilt their town, and for the rest of their lives told this incredible story. Reverend Williams' memoir, The Redeemed Captive, became the first best-selling book in American history and published within a few years of his release, it remains a literary classic. The Old Indian Gate is a touchstone that evokes one of the most dramatic and inspiring stories of colonial America. And now, finally, this legendary event is brought to life thanks to popular historian James Swanson.
James L. Swanson is the author of the New York Times bestseller Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. He is a lawyer who has written on history, the Constitution and popular culture for various publications, including the Wall Street Journal, American Heritage, the Smithsonian and the Los Angeles Times. He serves on the Ford Theater Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Campaign Advisory Board and is a member of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission Advisory Committee.
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