My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother was Martha Williams, sister of Rev. John Williams of Deerfield, Massachusetts. As a result of a war between England and France that carried across the ocean, Deerfield was attacked (actually several times throughout its early existence) by the French and Indians in February, 1704. Members of several Deerfield families were killed and many others were captured, including John Williams, his sons, and his daughter, Eunice, and marched up to Canada to the Kahnawake settlements near Montreal. John's wife, Eunice, was killed along the way. By 1706 all the Williams family had been returned to Deerfield for ransom except for Eunice. She never returned home, was adopted into a Kahnawake family and married a Mohawk Indian, Francois Xavier Arosen. They had two daughters that survived to adulthood, Catherine and Marie.
The entire story has been the subject of several books, one written by John Williams himself of his horrific experience, 'The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion' and a perhaps more detailed objective account 'The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America' by John Demos.
So on this day that most celebrate as the day Columbus 'discovered' America, an acknowledgement of how all of us got here except for those who lived here for hundreds of years before we arrived.
Source: Upworthy
And a salute to Hawaii, Alaska, and South Dakota, states that do not recognize Columbus Day. South Dakota has renamed it Native American Day! Appropriate indeed.
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