Statue Of A Killer: Towns Debate Presentation Of A Colonial Woman

A statue of a woman towers over a patch of daffodils in a city park in Haverhill, Mass. Scowling ferociously, she leans forward, gripping a hatchet.

The statue honors Hannah Duston, a 17th-century English colonist who is believed to have killed 10 Native Americans in order to escape captivity during King William's War. It has become a flashpoint in the country's ongoing debate about racist monuments, as locals reevaluate the Duston legend.

"That hatchet is supposedly the one that she actually used to, quote unquote, 'scalp the warriors,' " says Ron Peacetree, of the Haverhill Historical Commission.

Peacetree explains how the popular legend — in which Duston acted in self-defense against a group of Native American warriors who had kidnapped her — is contradicted by historical evidence. A number of the scalps Duston later collected a bounty on, he says, belonged to children.