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Introduction
John Williams was born on December tenth in the year 1664 in Roxbury Suffolk County Massachusetts in United States of America (USA). His father Samuel Williams was a Deacon and his mother was Theoda Park Williams. His grandfather Robert Williams was a well-known admitted freeman of Roxbury in 1638 and made John a cousin of Princess Diana. John Williams was not only learned but a scholar. He attended local school, Roxbury Latin School and later joined Havard College where he graduated with a Bachelor in Administration (B.A) in 1683.
His Life History
John Williams’s career begun as a school teacher in Dorchester where he taught for two years and during which time he studied divinity. He prophesied at the frontier settlement of Deerfield and selected as a pastor in March 1686. On twenty first July 1687, he married Eunice Mather whose father was Reverend Eleazar Mather of Northampton, and grandfather was Richard Mathar. They then got nine children. He was formally ordained as a pastor at a church gathering in the same place on seventeenth October 1668. During this time, Deerfield was in danger and was threatened by French and Indian attacks. As a Christian, he and his fellow church members believed that wars across the borders were occasional and that they were Gods way of showing that he was dissatisfied with the people of Deerfield who in John’s opinion showed no interest, enthusiasm or concern about the scripture and their spiritual ways left a lot of room for improvement. All the same, John was courageous expressed no fear during the war. He strongly encouraged and urged his people to stand firm onto their ground.
Before the Queen Anne’s war began he tried to warn the Governor Dudley to strengthen the Deerfield fortifications in order to protect the residents from the attacks. Unfortunately the warning came in a bit too late. In the King Philips war between 1975 and 1976, Deerfield had previously been attacked by the French and Indians soldiers and burned down in the process. The Queen Anne’s war this time round was not so different. On the morning of February the twenty ninth of the year 1703, just before daybreak, the French and Indians attacked Deerfield, ransacking all homesteads while killing most of the inhabitants including two of John William’s youngest children, his six year old son John Jr and his six month old daughter Jerushah along with his African slave Parthena. The raid was part of the French colonization and was aimed at displacing the English colonial frontier by capturing those they found therefore unfortunately the survivors were not set free. They were taken into captivity and exposed to hardship such as exposure to harsh winter weather conditions, bad landscape, hunger and grief on a 300 mile march to Canada. Johns Wife who had was still trying to recover from her delivery of six months before the attack was way too weak to withstand the hardships brought about by the captivity. She along with an African slave and a man named Frank were murdered by the primitive and uncivilized captors because they were unable to cross a creek. Other old people and children also died along the way. John was strong and encouraged his people to move on and encouraged them through prayer and scriptures from the Bible. The rest of the captives were detained in the Chambly Fort in Quebec where they were coerced to convert to the catholic faith by the Indians and Jesuit priests. This brought about a lot of tension amongst the captives as most of them were trying to stand by their faith and not convert. During this time, John was kept in isolation and was treated well but he did not take well to the good treatment, he had no appetite and was grief stricken at the loss of his wife and two children. One of his other children Eunice who was abducted at the point of the raid got married to an Indian. When he was reunited with his people, he effectively countered their conversion to the catholic faith so he was sent to Chateauviche where he remained captive for a period of more than two years until his release was effected on the twenty first of November 1706 by the Deerfield Governor Dudely With Cotton Mathers assistance, he continued preaching in Boston and its surrounds during the winter. Cotton Mathers recorded in his diary that it pleased the Lord to grant a quick and safe return. On December fifth 1706, John Wiliam preached on Mathers pulpit ad his sermon was documented for future readers. They emphasizes especially on the captivity and redemption. How God had mercy on Williams and delivered him from the hands of the French and Indians and how he saved him from death so that he could continue to preach to people and encourage them to believe in God. Despite the continued plunders and attacks to Deerfield by the Indians, their lucrative offers to stay away and the sad memories of the Massacre that took place the last time he was there, John went back home in January 1707 where he continued to preach and rebuild their homesteads.(Williams et al., 1853)
In 1707, John William wrote his first book, “The redeemed captive Returning to Zion,” which was printed by Bartholemew Green and was greatly accepted and approved as a congregational fortitude against the catholic faith and the continued escapade by the Indians to convert his people. The book gives his version of captivity and details their captivity for eight weeks by the Indians and two years by the French. His narratives bring out the differences between Roman Catholism and Puritanism. On sixteenth September 1707, he married his first wife’s cousin Abigail Allen Bissel of Windsor, Conn, sired five children, one of whom got married to Col. Ebenezer Hinsdale. This union was against the Judge Samuel Sewalls interpretation to the Bible against such unions with relatives. Abigail was a descendant of Henry King I of England through her grandmother Margaret Wyatt. He served as the chaplain in the 1711 expedition for the return of English prisoners in Canada and against Port Royal together with John Stoddard who was the commissioner in Canada then. He also attended annual clergymen meetings in Boston. Unfortunately he was unable to redeem his daughter Eunice as she had been married by an Indian. In 1728 he preached the convention sermon which was aimed at highlighting the religious differences at the time and all his sermons urged the listeners to be enthusiastic about their privilege to be descendants of pristine spiritual and Godly ancestors. He reminded them to continue to exalt the God of their ancestors, the God of their fathers and fore fathers.
He was kidnapped in 1714 and ransomed in 1716. His three children were also ransomed back except one who chose to get married to an Indian. He died on twelfth June 1729 at Deerfield Franklin County Massachusetts in USA and was survived by six children from his first marriage and five from his second wife.
The Book “The Redeemed Captain Returning to Zion”
Today, many people, especially students are not able to relate with John Williams books because they do not have any clue about the war that was brought about by the French and the Indians. They also need to have the knowledge and background on the differences between the Puritans from the Church of England and the Roman Catholism. John William was strong in faith and stood by his ground throughout his captivity in Quebec where the French Jesuits tried their level best to convert him to the Roman Catholic faith.
His book about the redeemed captive is used by learning institutions today to learn about the French and Indian wars as well as bring out the religious conflicts there were between the Puritans and the Catholics. In his narratives, he also wrote down some of his sermons, explained further about his personal life and his history. This highlighted his personal thoughts, perspectives and issues he faced as well as how he handled them. His book also elaborated some myths such as the white-Indian relationship and the Puritan myth of America. It elaborates how the Indian raids came about and how the white settlers were brutally massacred and the inhumane hardships, aggression and hostilities the whites underwent under the Indians captivity.
His narratives also had a great significance on the art, form and style of living for those who read it especially Americans. The context was religious in form, and it began from the early stages emphasizing on how Puritans suffered and how captivity and all the suffering that came with it was it. He narrated it as Gods way of testing their faith as well as punishment for their evil deeds and that those who came through it were glorified. His narrations were used for the early Sunday school teachings.
In John Williams dedication to his Excellency Joseph Dudley, Esq., the audience he targeted in his narratives were the Pritian people, however his narratives are still used today because they closed in on other important teachings such as God’s wrath for people who disobeyed his scriptures and that God also shows mercy and goodness to those who obeyed his scriptures. He writes about his many days of fasting and prayer and devastation and how he did not turn away from God neither did he get angry with what God was taking him through. He narrates by doing so God had Mercy on him and he survived as a living witness of how God delivered him back to safety. He preaches how Christians should accept to suffer patiently and go through all public humiliation and calamity without losing faith in God, and to continue to serve him and pray in order to survive it all. He described the bad and harmful nature of the Indians as satanic and that of the Jesuits as diabolical because of the way they kept trying to convert him and his people to Catholics and tried to force John to attend the Latin mass, pray to the Virgin Mary and to kiss the crucifix. His works were captivity narratives. The Indians were described as satanic as they burned people’s homesteads to the ground, killed ruthlessly, they dragged the captives through the harsh weather conditions and lousy terrain for days on end without caring about their health conditions. The helpless and weak like the very old people and the young died along the way.
Conclusion
All of John Williams life was spent during the war between the English colonists and the French colonists for their hometown Deerfield. He had to witness the evacuation of his people, their houses being burnt down, the massacre and their turmoil as they were lead to Canada. He painfully lost two of his last born sons and his wife to death by the Indians. He also lost one of his daughters Eunice to the Indians through marriage. He as a reverend also had the hard task of maintaining his Puritans faith and not being converted to the Catholic faith. It was even harder for him to convince for him to maintain the rest of the survivors not to convert to Catholics especially after being separated from them for over two years. His book helped a lot because it was from reading his narratives that they read about his experiences, related them with their own and accepted his teachings with open arms (Haefani, 2006). When he returned home, they built him a place to stay, welcomed him back and continued to attend this sermons and adhere to his teachings. They agreed with him about Gods trials on people’s faith and his mercy and redemption on those who continually prayed and trusted in him based on the narratives he gave on his captivity, the hardships he went through and how he continually prayed until he was released and was able to get back home.
References:
Haefeli, Evan. Captive Histories: English, French and Native Narratives of the 1704 Deerfield Raid. Amherst, Mass: Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 2006. Print.
