Introduction

The notorious 1704 raid on Deerfield, which left the village devastated, dozens dead and more than one hundred captured and marched to Canada, has received much attention and has been thoroughly documented. However, it is far from the first, or only, deadly raid on Deerfield and the surrounding English settlements. Let’s take a closer look at the hostilities that occurred prior to the famous Deerfield raid of February 29, 1704.

English Westward Expansion

Deerfield was on the very western edge of colonized land in the 1670s, “The Utmost Frontier Town” to quote Evan Haefeli and Kevin Sweeney from their book “Captors and Captives: The 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield”. Settlers kept pushing westward in their quest for more land for their expanding families to farm. Notwithstanding existing First Nation claims to the land, English settlers continued to extend their reach despite strong and often violent resistance from indigenous peoples. The raids represented their opportunity to strike a blow against continuing colonial expansion, sometimes with compensation from the French, or for the tribes with mourning war tradition, to take captives in replacement for members lost to war, disease, or other perils. It is important to note that First Nation groups often adopted captives as members of their families and not as “servants” or “slaves”.

It is possible to mark the beginning of troubled times at Pocumtuck, renamed Deerfield, to a deed signed in February 1667. It granted the English parcels of ‘vacant’ land along the Connecticut River, which the English wanted because they had surrendered land to indigenous peoples near Boston for a reservation at Natick. The so-called Dedham Grant consisted of 8,000 acres that to the natives were not ‘vacant’ but had been their habitat for hundreds of years. It is no wonder local Pocomtuc people were deeply offended and motivated to action.

First Raids - King Philip’s War (1675- 1678)

In June 1675, land and law disputes between the native Wampanoags and English settlers in Plymouth Colony grew into a conflict referred to by the English as “King Philip’s War.” King Philip was actually a local Wampanoag leader called Metacom. Over the course of the summer the conflict spread, eventually reaching Deerfield, population approximately two hundred, and in early September two attacks were repulsed, on the 1st and 12th .

On September 18, 1675, indigenous persons launched a devastating ambush that resulted in the deaths of nearly fifty English soldiers and fourteen civilian men from Deerfield, “close to half of the village’s adult males” according to Haefeli and Sweeney. This attack came to be known as ‘The Bloody Brook Massacre’. George Sheldon in “A History of Deerfield Massachusetts”, calls it “one of the darkest pages in the history of our town.” Deerfield was ordered abandoned by English authorities three days later and was re-occupied by indigenous peoples.

Tentative English Foothold

On May 19, 1676, English forces struck back brutally, with two to three hundred indigenous persons killed or drowned in the Connecticut River. They continued their push through the summer, driving the indigenous peoples east, north and west. By spring 1677 a few English families returned to Deerfield and tried to re-establish the community, however Deerfield did not have adequate defenses and remained unsafe during King Philip’s War. In early 1682, additional English settlers returned to Deerfield, including Godfrey Nims. The village experienced a period of growing prosperity and relative peace until the outbreak of King William’s War.

King William’s War and More Raids (1688 - 1697)

In 1688 the so called “Glorious Revolution” unfolded, in which Catholic James II of England was overthrown by Dutch Protestant William of Orange, who came to the throne with his wife Mary, James’ eldest daughter. The resulting war, called the Nine Years’ War – or King William’s War in the colonies – involved England and France, affecting their colonies up through the American Revolution. This marked the first time English settlers confronted First Nations supported by the French, whose interests in America were in opposition to the English.

By 1690, Deerfield was exposed and vulnerable after Northfield, Mass. was abandoned and, for the first time, erected a stockade around houses in the center. In June, an indigenous person known, as Chepasson, threatened to cut off Benjamin Brooks’s head and tried to obtain a gun or knife to kill Godfrey Nims. He tried and failed to bribe, then overpowered his English guard but was shot dead trying to escape (Haefeli and Sweeney). Deerfield was deeply affected by the Nine Years’ War through illness, attacks and crop failures. By early 1693, residents considered abandoning the town once again. In June of that year, indigenous persons killed three or four residents and in September 1694, a large force directly attacked but was turned back with few casualties. Further attacks came through ambushes in 1695 and 1696.

Deerfield lost twelve residents, five were wounded and five were captured during the King William’s War. and was again on the verge of abandonment. If not for a Massachusetts law passed in 1695 that designated it “frontier town or plantation” which carried severe penalties such as land forfeiture and even imprisonment for leaving without government permission, it is likely that residents would have sought safety elsewhere in the colony, probably further east.

Temporary Peace

The Nine Years’ War ended in 1697 with the Treaty of Ryswick, resulting in a period of growing peace in America. In 1699, the Reverend Cotton Mather called Deerfield “an extraordinary Instance of Courage in keeping their station…” With peace came increased prosperity and a few new residents. By 1703, Deerfield had about 50 families and 260 to 270 residents, just slightly more than in 1688 (Haefeli and Sweeney). The authors point out that Deerfield and similar frontier towns were not military outposts of the English empire but subsistence farming communities that consumed land to support their growing families. As such, these communities represented a threat to the dwindling indigenous population and to the smaller French colony in Canada.

Queen Anne’s War (1701 - 1714)

Charles II, the last Spanish Habsburg king of Spain died childless in 1700, kicking off a conflict in Europe known as the War of Spanish Succession and Queen Anne’s War in North America. Although a conflict between the French and Austrian royal houses, French King Louis XIV’s expansionism provoked England and other countries to enter the conflict. Joseph Dudley arrived in Massachusetts as its new governor in 1702 bringing news of England’s entry into the war, a conflict that The war eventually would spread to New France (Canada).

New France, supported by First Nations against England and its colonists in America, once again made Deerfield an endangered place. Just how endangered is the story that unfolded through the raid of February 29, 1704, forever entering Deerfield and the Nims Family in the annals of American history.