Death, Terrorism, Time

The attack on Deerfield – to New Englanders, a terrorist massacre of innocents (even if the displaced Indians saw it as a justified act of war) – was the defining event of the era, especially for families of the victims, such as the Stoddards. Over a year later Esther Mather Stoddard was still reeling from images of the slaughter of her daughter and two grandchildren. These losses were compounded by the sudden death of a son and by more recent news that another close family member, taken captive at sea, had died in France. “What shall I say?” she wrote to her daughter Esther Stoddard Edwards in East Windsor. “It becomes me Aaron-like to hold my speach. God grant that I may, with Job, come as gold out of the fire when I have been tried.” The mother went on to remind her daughter to be prepared for death at any moment. “The time is short, and it may be very short to us that remains, as was to your sister and brother. One day made a great change in my dear daughter’s condition.” Her best consolation was that her son-in-law the Reverend John Williams, though still in captivity, had sent a letter assuring the family of the spiritual condition of his slain wife. “Son Williams is satisfied that she is now in glory.” - George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life, 15.