User Reviews

One of the most elaborate Indian pictures ever put on the screen. It is a story of the famous massacre at Deerfield, Mass., in 1765 and 1764. All exterior scenes were made in and about Deerfield and they faithfully reproduce the scenery in Summer and Winter. It is well, too, that views of this magnificent old town have been made permanent. It is one of the few historic towns which have not been injured by time and the ruthless renovator. The colonial houses still line the principal street, none of them rebuilt or destroyed and the great shade trees still overarch the streets, massive, magnificent, unsurpassed. It was a cruel massacre. History says that, and records of the wanderings and sufferings of the prisoners prove the assertions of history. An incident in the early colonial wars, it has remained as one of the landmarks of the struggle in settlement and freedom. There is a heart interest which holds one's attention and arouses the emotions. There are thrilling scenes when the war whoop of the Indian, the crackling flames of the burning buildings and the shrieks of those who are suffering at the hands of the Indians can be heard, so vividly is the story told. It brings graphically before one something of the dangers which menaced even as considerable a village as Deerfield and it emphasizes anew what it cost to make this land a fit habitation for the millions that are now here, films like this perform a service of importance. They instruct, and, at the same time, they impress upon those who see them something of the conditions which existed during the struggle for a new home in the wilderness and later in wresting freedom from a stubborn king. - The Moving Picture World, October 15, 1910