Clash of Cultures
Ryan Westlie
HIS/110

Clash of Cultures
The Deerfield Massacre was a blood moment in history. Deerfield became fallout from Queen Anne’s War which lasted from 1702-1713. This was the second French and Indian war fought between France and England. Like most of the wars fought on American soil before it was the country we know today, land was the interest of the conflict. Native Americans played a significant role in these conflicts, and on February 29th 1704 the war found its way into Deerfield Massachusetts.
Deerfield was an English settlement that housed men, women, and children. This small village was no stranger to raids. A little more than twenty five years earlier Deerfield was evacuated after several attacks that almost killed all the adult males in the village. The English and local tribes clashed several times over the years. Losses on all side, including the French whom had started small attacks around the areas with the Indians. Deerfield was on high alert, knowing that there would be retaliation. Though they never though that an attack would happen during the hard winter like it did. In fact, the local militia was order to return home because it was thought winter was not the time for warfare. The leader of the raid a loyal Frenchman called Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville, had a force of about 250 combatants. Mostly Indian, forty eight of them were French. After taking on an additional thirty to forty Penacook Indians, they numbered closer to 300 by the time they were staged for the engagement. What is amazing is that the English occupants of this little village were aware of this movement. The level of complacency in the eye of reliable intelligence was a direct result in what was to happen.
Like hunters the French and Indian forces closed in the town of Deerfield. There isn’t many accurate accounts of how alert the village was at the time of the attack, though based on the casualties and that fact child are among them one has to speculate they were not prepared. Reverend John Williams was recalled to have said, they moved in “like a flood upon us” (Wikipedia, 2015). Destroying and looting homes, and almost half of the Deerfield villages dead. 165 in all, twenty five of them children. Another 109 villagers were captured among them John Williams who reports the French claimed they lost forty French and Indian soldiers (Wikipedia, 2015). Reverend Williams retold his story in a book entitled The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion. The fighting continued until the end of Queen Anne’s War in 1713. Though there was a small time of peace for the English and French, thirty years later King George’s War would again put them at odds.

References
Hickman, K. (2015, January 1). Queen Anne's War: Raid on Deerfield. Retrieved from About Education: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/battleswars16011800/p/Queen-Annes-War-Raid-On-Deerfield.htm
Wikipedia. (2015, July 20). Raid on Deerfield. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Deerfield