Indian wars
While Stockholm Syndrome is a modern psychological concept, many historians and psychologists see parallels in some early colonial cases. The captives’ adaptation, emotional bonding, and re-identification with their captors suggest mechanisms similar to trauma bonding or Stockholm Syndrome.
Native American groups such as the Abenaki, Mohawk, and Wabanaki Confederacy often took colonists captive during raids. Conflicts included King Philip’s War (1675–1678) and Queen Anne’s War (1702–1713). Captives were sometimes:
- Given to their French counterparts for indoctrination into Catholicism
- Held for ransom
- Adopted into tribes
Sometimes captives chose not to return home. Often, they viewed their captors as family and fully assimilated into Native culture learning the language and traditions. Yet others returned to colonial life but spoke fondly of their time in captivity.
Chelmsford Connection
Moses Barrett Jr. was 19 years old in 1704 when kidnapped by Indians and held in Canada for four years. (1)
We don’t know where he was when kidnapped, but Moses grew up on his family homestead at 40 Byam Road. Today this is the Barrett-Byam Homestead, home of the Chelmsford Historical Society
After his release he lived in Newton, Massachusetts for four years, where he married his first wife, Sarah. He later moved to Killingly, Connecticut.
Moses and Sarah had a son, also named Moses, who graduated from Princeton University in 1754. He founded the Moor’s Indian Charity School in Litchfield, Connecticut which later moved to Hanover, New Hampshire. It became a nucleus of Dartmouth College although the school never merged into the college.
It is easy to assume that the experiences of Moses the father greatly influenced the life of Moses the son. Stockholm Syndrome at work…
References:
(1) Historical Society’s Barrett Family Notebook, page 94
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