Hannah Duston, March 14, 1697

As the Indians marched their captives into the wilderness, nursemaid Mary Neff was carrying the newborn baby Martha and having trouble keeping up with the rest of the party, one of the Indians took it from her and murdered the newborn by smashing her head against a tree in front of her horrified mother, Hannah. The next night, while all of the warrior braves were sleeping, Hannah sought her vengeance. She somehow broke free from her restraints and slowly tiptoed her way across the campsite. Using extreme caution, she held her breath, quietly reached into the pack of a nearby warrior, closed her fingers around the wooden handle of a razor-sharp tomahawk, and silently pulled it out into the night air. She is the first American woman to have a public monument built in her honor. On a small island north of Concord, New Hampshire, stands a 25-foot-tall granite statue of Hannah Duston, she holds in her hands, a tomahawk; in the other, a fistful of scalps.