Prisoner halter

Date:: 1746
Item Type:: object

About

“The Bars” section of Deerfield, Massachusetts, was attacked during King Georges War on August 25, 1746, by a group of French, Abenakis and Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) from Kahnawake, a reserve in Quebec, Canada. This prisoner halter was found after the attack and would have been tied around a prisoner’s neck, with a soldier holding each end of the line to control the prisoner. This artifact was donated to the Deerfield Academy Museum around 1800 by Dorothy (Williams) Ashley. She (1713-1808) lived in Deerfield in 1746, and was the wife of the Reverend Jonathan Ashley, Deerfield’s minister from 1732-1780.