Summary Of Kather Captivity By Hannah Dustan

Feminized Heroism: Violent Women in the Indian Captivity Narrative

Hannah Dustan in Cotton Mather’s “A Notable Exploit” and the female protagonist of the “Panther Captivity” narrative both act aggressively, destroying their captors and then further demeaning them through scalping or decapitation. Aggressive women were less acceptable to Puritanical ideals in the 18th century. Although Hannah Dustan’s narrative was published in 1702 and “Panther Captivity” was published in 1787, there is little change evident for the roles women had to play from pre-Revolutionary America to post-Revolutionary America. Due to the male perspectives applied to these female characters, Dustan and the lady in “Panther Captivity” revert to the role of the victim through

Dustan also scalps ten Indians, “six of whom were children,” before escaping (Mather 60; Cutter 1). How is Dustan a hero, then, if she acted far outside of her gender boundaries? Dustan’s actions are similar to stereotypes applied to male Indians captors, particularly the action of murdering children, a fatality which transpired for one of Dustan’s own infants (Mather 59). Derounian-Stodola proposes that, rather than accepting the vengeful spin placed upon the narrative, the reader should realize that “greed” had a significant role in Dustan’s scalping of her captors (55). Although greediness may be a factor in Dustan’s character, Mather’s writing reinforces the vengeance narrative. He depicts Dustan as the mere avenger of her own child in the lines, “she thought she was not forbidden by any Law to take away the Life of the Murderers, by whom her Child had been Butchered” (60). Mather also stresses Dustan’s motherly vulnerability by opening the narrative with her postnatal state, “having lain-in about a Week” (58). Through this pattern, Mather emphasizes Dustan’s role as a mother in order to diminish the male violence she participates in, turning Dustan into a more maternal, and thus, feminine