Customer Reviews

The Ransom of Mercy Carter

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Eleven-year-old Mercy Carter lives with her family in Deerfield, Massachusetts, the most remote settlement in the English colonies in 1704. Although life in Deerfield is both difficult and dangerous, with countless chores for even the youngest child and the constant threat of Indian attacks, Mercy takes comfort in her family and her faith. But even her prayers are not enough to save many settlers from brutal deaths at the hands of the Indians, and they aren't enough to save Mercy, who is among the survivors, from capture. Forced to march three hundred miles north to the Indian village in Canada through the brutal winter cold is almost more than Mercy can bear, and many do not survive the journey. Once she arrives in Canada, she finds herself a servant, and her only comfort lies in her faith, her prayers, and the faint hope that she will be ransomed and reunited with the surviving members of her family. Yet as time goes by, Mercy begins to think of herself as less of a captive, and more of a daughter of the tribe. And as this happens, Mercy wonders - if given the chance to become "English" again, would she even want to take it? Is she even still Mercy Carter, the Puritan girl from Deerfield, or an entirely new person? This was an absolutely wonderful book. The author really was able to get inside Mercy's head, to make the reader feel what she was feeling, as she struggles to love and not hate, to mourn her lost family and friends yet be happy among the people responsible for the deaths, and to remember her old life without causing herself pain. I can't say enough good things about this book, so I'll just highly reccomend that you read it.

The Ransom of Mercy Carter was the best book I have read in a long time. It is about an 11 year old girl who lives in Deerfield, Massachusetts. She lives there with her stepmama and her father. Also with her siblings Benny, Marah, Tommy, John, and Sam. They are an English family living in this small village with many other families hiding from Indian raids. Then one night the indians come and take all the children that they can and many of the adults. Mercy's father is away buying things needed for the family. The indian's take almost every item belonging to the many families and burn all the buildings. Then they take the children and parents on a 3 hundred mile trek to Canada. Along the way many people become ill or hurt and die. Many are murdered out of pure hatred of the indians. Mercy and her family are spared all but her stepmama and Marah who are too weak and cry too much and have their lives taken by the indians. Then the indians take the children they want to adopt and go to their villages that they live in. The Carter family is completely seperated. Then it tells what happens to them in their lives and how they live. Mercy is torn between wanting to be ransomed and staying with the indians. I really enjoyed this because it told about indian life in the villages and how life was in the early 1700s. I deeply encourage you to read this book.This is the first book I have read by Caroline B. Cooney and I am looking forward to reading many, many more. ;)

The trend in young adult literature now is historical fiction and I love it. This was an intriguing book that once started was hard to put down. The details of the attack by the Indians and the march north to Canada were very gripping. This is the type of book that students love and open up the class room to great discussions. Read this book now.

I thought this was one of my favorite books! The story is very interesting and a great book to do a school report on. The book is mainly about a girl named Mercy Carter who is about 11 and the time. One cold winter night, her town was taken over by a bunch of native americans. These Native Americans killed many in the town and took hundreds of captives. Their plan is to march all the way to Canada from Deerfield Massachusetts. When they get to the Native town, Mercy learns the Native's way of life, and learns to become a NAtive. She learns the language and everything. When ransom arrived for people in the Native town, will Mercy choose to become an Native, or go back to her home?

I thought this was an excellent account based on the known facts of the Deerfield Raid of 1704. The author endeavored to explore all the thoughts that might be in the mind of an 11 year old forced to endure such an experience and goes to great pains to write the known facts into the actual journey to Canada.

However, like most books regarding whites and native Americans (although these were Canadian Indians), I found this to be a bit slanted. I find it difficult to reconcile how the authors always seem to come across as a bit sympathetic, at least in Mercy's eyes, to the Indians who have stolen a number of the children after slaughtering some of their siblings and parents. If you put this in modern terms, imagine that a man breaks into someone's house and steals their child and adopts him/her into his family as his own. That man today is instantly condemned by society and will be justifiably punished for his crime. Kidnappings of that sort do happen and we as a society are relieved and rejoice if that child is found and returned to his or her family. Are not these Native American/Settler stories not exactly the same? Does it matter if the man is black, white, Asian, or Indian; isn't it the same crime, regardless of religion or culture? Innocent children stolen from families; most of whom have never harmed a Native American. Yet in the book, we are supposed to rejoice that Mercy has decided to stay with her captors rather than return to her father who has lost his entire family. And this after not much time has passed at all. Granted the real Mercy Carter did choose to stay, but it is still bothersome that the Indians who have done the kidnapping are mostly sympathetic characters in these stories. How does the fact that they are Indian somehow excuse such crimes? We are supposed to excuse the crime as "payback" for the crimes committed against Native Americans (even though the children and their Puritan families were not to blame for those atrocities.)

The other issue I had with the author is that she portrays Rev John Williams in such a poor light. She goes as far in the epilogue that he later wrote "brutal" letters to his children in response to their conversion to Catholicism (if you read the violence that was enacted upon some of these children UNTIL they converted, in today's terms we'd call it "brainwashing"). Anyone can read these letters online; I would hardly call them "brutal". Rather how is a reverend who has lost most of his family, some spiritually, supposed to respond? If you read his actual account "The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion" it speaks of a man of remarkable courage and bravery in the face of the most horrific experience imaginable. He continues to hold steadfastly to his faith in God throughout his ordeal, convinced that God is merciful, good and forgiving (a view of God we never see in the Cooney book). I think Cooney paints a poor picture of this remarkable man who was a real person who survived a terrible ordeal.

She also states that there is no indication that his 7 year old child, Eunice, wished to return to him, but rather wished to stay with her new Indian family. However, if you read Williams' actual account, he states that he was granted a visit with his child early on, at which time, "she was very desirous to be redeemed out of the hands of the Macquas". What a heartache for this father that his child was not redeemed, and eventually assimilated into Indian society, choosing her kidnappers as her new family and abandoning her real one after time had passed. In the book, Mercy helps hide her from her real father when he is spotted in the street and she is with the child. If you put this into today's context, we are supposed to think it somehow honorable that a child who is kidnapped by a stranger decides to stay with her captor instead of being returned to her own family?

I also found the book to be slanted against the Puritan religion in general. Remember it was the Puritans who landed on Plymouth Rock and enjoyed many many years of excellent relations with the Massachusetts Indians. Most distressing is her description of the Puritan's God; "The Deerfield frontier had been hard and God had not made it easier. Just when the sky seemed blue, the children sweet and the crop good, God would fling hail at the corn and smallpox at the babies. But the French God slipped like a strong shadow behind the path of the Indian spirits. He was a gentler God." It seemed that he author was clearly biased against the beliefs of the Puritan people and slanted towards French Indian Catholicism.

I suppose any author is going to bring their own personal biases into a novel of this depth and length, especially when there are so many different cultures and religions happening, but it seemed a bit too deliberate somehow. I'd still recommend the book, as there is much depth to it, but would also recommend reading the REAL first hand account by John Williams - it's a public domain book, so it can be read right on line or downloaded and taking ALL sides and beliefs into account.

CHAPTER FOUR
CONNECTICUT RIVER
MARCH 2, 1704
TEMPERATURE 10 DEGREES

Ruth is getting mad at everybody for what they did or should have done. She gets a knife from an Indian and tries to kill herself but the Indian stops her. Mercy tells Eben to ask Indians his name cause they like it. Indians were deciding who deserved captivity, not life. Being property was an honor. Mercy and Eben learn 21 words of the Indians language by the night. Eben is sent to get firewood and he understands and is happy, cause he will be warm and they can dry their clothes. Indians found 20 moose under the snow and cooked it up. The people were so hungry that they ate it half-raw, because they didn't have the patience to cook it. Sally Burt is the only one that is let to walk with her husband because she is eight months pregnant. Ruth is getting mad because Eben and Mercy are learning the Mohawk language, and that they just left their town behind them. She also keeps talking about ransom. A word they must cherish. Mercy says Eben has to make friends so they don't kill him, cause otherwise he will be next. Mercy now has an Indian name, her name is Munnonock. Mercy is wondering why they came to Deerfield, she thinks that they might need children. Mercy is turning into and Indian because she is getting interested in the language.

CHAPTER FIVE
LEAVING THE Connecticut River
MARCH 8,1704
TEMPERATURE 40 DEGREES

Mercy is realizing that he is an Indian and she is letting her parents down. Everybody starts going in different directions. Mercy stays with Eben, Sarah, Joseph, Ruth and Eliza. Indians can't find food but they don't worry, only the prisoners worry. Mercy tells Ruth that her name, Mahakem, means "Fire eats her". Joe and Eben search for food while the girls stay by the fire. Eben and Joe go south with masters with bows and arrows because arrows were quicker to reload then guns and they are quieter. Eben shoots a rabbit with the arrow but on the way back Eben has to carry a deer's carcass on his back. Ruth wants to escape; she doesn't want to be a slave. Ruth slips over a cliff but is hanging on and her master, otter, pulls her up then she pushes him over the edge. Ruth then goes down and saves him and says that she didn't want to do it, but she doesn't want to be like you.

CHAPTER SIX
ST LAWRENCE RIVER FRENCH CANADA
APRIL 10, 1704
TEMPERATURE 44 DEGREES.

They meet a priest who praises to the Indians then tells them that's they will be all right and that they will be sold to good French families. Father Meriel buys Eliza. Mercy begs to go with him and realizes the priest is a nice guy. He goes around and blesses everyone except Ruth gets mad at him and tells him not to do it again. Mercy gets to stay in a house and eats warm food and gets washed and treated stays warm. Sally Burt has a baby boy and she bit down on a cylinder piece of wood to absorb the pain. Indians bring many gifts for the baby. Baby is baptized in four different languages; English, French, Mohawk and Latin.

CHAPTER SEVEN
KAHNAWAKE
APRIL 20,1704
TEMPERATURE 56 DEGREES

Married couples would live apart but while she slept they would do what married couples do right in front of everybody. Nistenha wouldn't let Mercy and Ruth speak English. Eben and Sarah are sold to people in Lorette. Eben now looks like and Indian. French and Indians start exchanging gifts to celebrate what they are already did, with the war. Mercy gathers corn berries, nuts, and squash in a basket with Nistenha. She is told it was done very well. Ruth gets a new name, its Spukumenen meaning "let the sky in". The reason they went to Deerfield was to get prisoners so they could exchange Batiste with them in Boston. Batiste was caught sinking English ships.

CHAPTER EIGHT
KAHNAWAKE
AUGUST 1704
TEMPERATURE 75 DEGREES

Its summer and children are playing and not wearing clothes. Mercy was swimming and made moccasins and learned how to make neat things. They would use beer grease to keep the mosquitoes away. Joseph is being adopted and is going to become catholic. Joseph is telling Mr. Williams about how the Indians are his family and Mr. Williams tells them how they should not listen to the priest, not to become catholic, and not to say prayers. Mercy realizes that it doesn't matter what language she speaks just as long as she keeps the commandments.

CHAPTER NINE
MONTREAL
OCTOBER 1704
TEMP 55 DEGREES

Mercy is finally going to see the city and its decided that she gets a new name. Her new name, meaning "flying legs" is Gassinontie. It is so because she ran since she could walk. Mercy meets her cousin and Mary says that Mercy has become a savage and turned into an Indian. Mary's parents want to buy Mercy but Nistenha says no. Mercy runs into Eben and Sarah. Eben is fine but Sarah wants her home. She has been adopted by a French family and she wants ransom. They already have a husband picked out for her. If she is to marry she will marry into the religion, which she does not want to do. Eben tells Sarah that he loves her and he will marry her. She says yes and starts crying tears of joy. They wonder if they will be allowed to, and if so when will it happen.

It's great if you are looking for historical accuracy, Cooney is a good writer, but for this story, she goes a little overboard in the depressing story-telling style. It starts off Sad and Depressing and only gets worse. It has a somewhat good ending, but leaves alot unsaid, only sums a brief history at the end. I read it in 2 days, but was disapointed at the end. She doesn't give readers a reason for her wanting to either stay or leave. If you like historical accuracy and love bitter endings this story is for you.

Deerfield, Massachusetts ; a home to 300, and a target for Indians in the year 1704. One night, Mercy Carter, an 11 year old girl hears the Indians coming. She knows they will attack, and she knows the men of Deerfield will not survive. Mercy is right, and as soon as she knows it, she and 200 other former citizens of Deerfield are on a 300 mile trek to Canada. When the prisoners finally arrive to their final destination in Canada, Mercy is adopted in to Mohawk Indian family. Mercy starts to adapt to her new life, and when a ransom is offered for the prisoners to go home, Mercy must make a decision.I thought this book was a great read. Cooney's writing really brings the readers attention towards the characters, and how they feel about whatever the situation was in the book. After reading this book, I would recommend it for kids in grades 6-12. I think that readers in this age group would appreciate a good historical fiction book, and if they want one I suggest that they pick up a copy of The Ransom of Mercy Carter, by Caroline B. Cooney.

This was a very good historical fiction book. I like how Mercy struggled with remembering her Purtitan family while being with her new Indian family. Although I don't really like the ending, i still liked some parts of how the book turned out. It was a book I couldn't put down, and I'm positive you won't either.

this story is rather sad at some points.At one time the Indians had adopted a man's daughter and wouldn't let him see his daughter. That was heartbreaking. They weren't thinking,no one would want you to try to be there parent and you're not espcially if you big enough to know.Also i don't think some of the characters in this story are smart. they will not let their people ransom them.After being captured and forced to march to Canada they disapprove of being what they are and wish to be Indians. Anyway it is a good story if you're sensitive and and cannot bear to read about severe torture. Of course the captives in this story have not been tortured. Instead, they've been adopted into a Mohawk family.