Hannah Swarton
[11] On 16 May 1690, the fortified settlement on Casco Bay was attacked by a war party of 50 French-Canadian soldiers led by Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin, about 50 Abenaki warriors from Canada, a contingent of French militia led by Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière, and 300-400 additional natives from Maine, including some Penobscots under the leadership of Madockawando.
Hannah's native mistress was a Catholic who had been raised in an English community at Black Point (present-day Scarborough, Maine).
[13] Hannah believed that her captivity and suffering were divine punishment inflicted on her for her sins, a common theme in Puritan literature of the time.
In particular, Hannah identifies leaving "public worship and the Ordinances of God" by moving from Beverly, Massachusetts, to Casco Bay, a rural community "where there was no Church, or Minister of the Gospel," as a transgression, even though she probably had little choice in the matter.
They gave her food and treated her kindly, and Hannah asked her Abenaki master if she would be allowed to spend the night in a French home, which he agreed to.
"[Note 1] He had her treated at a local hospital (probably the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec) and his wife paid a ransom to Hannah's Indian master.
[14]: 156 [13] In November 1695, Matthew Cary went to Quebec under the auspices of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, with "Permission and Passport given by Count Frontenac," Governor General of New France, to bring back English people held there as prisoners, by boat to Boston and New York.
[9]: 157 After she and her son Jasper returned to New England in November 1695, Hannah Swarton gave an account of her captivity (possibly dictated), in the form of a narrative that was published in 1697 by Cotton Mather.
Swarton's story was heavily embellished by Mather, who added numerous biblical references, but many of the details of her experiences appear authentic.
[24]: 157 Mather emphasizes the dangers of living in an "ungospelized plantation", a reference to communities in rural Maine without an ordained minister, and which were prone to French (Catholic) influence.
[26] Protestant and Catholic populations were in close contact across North America, and pressure to convert mirrored political and economic influences affecting these largely uneducated, agricultural communities.
Hannah Swarton's resistance to the pressure from her French masters is exhibited as a prime example of loyalty to her Puritan faith,[28] and has been referred to as "passive forbearance in the face of adversity.
