BOSTON (AP) â The fierce monuments honor an English colonist who, legend has it, slaughtered her Native American captors after the gruesome killing of her baby.
But the statues to Hannah Duston â one in Massachusetts where she grips a hatchet and another in New Hampshire where she clutches a bundle of scalps â are being reconsidered amid the nationwide reckoning on racism and controversial public monuments.
Historians, Native Americans and even some of Duston’s descendants argue that many of the details of the 17th-century story are lost in the telling, such as the fact that many of the victims weren’t even Indigenous warriors, but children.
Statues to hatchet-wielding colonist Hanna Duston reconsidered
A statue of Hannah Duston, dated 1879, stands in the Grand Army of the Republic Park, Wednesday, April 28, 2021, in Haverhill, Mass., meant to honor the English colonist who, legend has it, slaughtered her Native American captors after the gruesome killing of her baby. But the statue in Haverhill, and another of Duston in New Hampshire, are being reconsidered amid the nationwide reckoning on racism and controversial public monuments. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Steven Senne
A detail of a statue of Hannah Duston, dated 1879, shows a hatchet in Duston s hand, in the Grand Army of the Republic Park, Wednesday, April 28, 2021, in Haverhill, Mass., meant to honor the English colonist who, legend has it, slaughtered her Native American captors after the gruesome killing of her baby. But the statue in Haverhill, and another of Duston in New Hampshire, are being reconsidered amid the nationwide reckoning on racism and controversia
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Statues to hatchet-wielding colonist reconsidered
Statues in Massachusetts and New Hampshire honoring an English colonist who took a hatchet to her Native American captors after the death of her baby are being reconsidered
By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press
April 29, 2021, 9:56 PM
• 4 min read
The Associated Press
A statue of Hannah Duston, dated 1879, stands in the Grand Army of the Republic Park, Wednesday, April 28, 2021, in Haverhill, Mass., meant to honor the English colonist who, legend has it, slaughtered her Native American captors after the gruesome killing of her baby. But the statue in Haverhill, and another of Duston in New Hampshire, are being reconsidered amid the nationwide reckoning on racism and controversial public monuments. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Statues to hatchet-wielding colonist reconsidered in New Hampshire, Massachusetts
Critics say the story of Hannah Duston was first used as propaganda against Native Americans in New England and then served the same purpose as the U.S. expanded west in the 1800s.
By PHILIP MARCELOAssociated Press
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A statue of Hannah Duston, dated 1879, stands in the Grand Army of the Republic Park in Haverhill, Mass., meant to honor the English colonist who, legend has it, slaughtered her Native American captors after the gruesome killing of her baby. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
BOSTON The fierce monuments honor an English colonist who, legend has it, slaughtered her Native American captors after the gruesome killing of her baby.