Susanna Johnson
Susanna Johnson, born in 1730 in Groton, Massachusetts, is notable for her harrowing experiences during the colonial period in America. At the age of eight, she was sent away to live with a family in Massachusetts, while her own family relocated to Fort Number Four in New Hampshire. In 1749, she married James Johnson, and they established a life in Charlestown, where they thrived both in business and family, having three children. Their lives took a drastic turn on August 30, 1754, when their homestead was attacked by Abenaki tribesmen, leading to their capture and a grueling journey to Montreal, where she gave birth to a daughter during captivity. Johnson faced significant hardships as her family was separated, and she endured imprisonment alongside her newborn. After several years, she was reunited with her husband but tragically lost him to militia duty shortly thereafter. In the years that followed, she worked to reclaim her lost children, who had been raised away from her. Johnson's life story, which reflects resilience in the face of adversity, culminated in the publication of her narrative in 1796, offering insight into her extraordinary trials and the broader context of colonial experiences.
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Susanna Johnson
Writer
- Born: February 20, 1730
- Birthplace: Groton, Massachusetts
- Died: November 27, 1810
Biography
Susanna Johnson was born in Groton, Massachusetts, in 1730. In 1742, Johnson’s family moved to the wilderness of New Hampshire, where family members lived in a fort known as Fort Number Four, which was later renamed Charlestown. Johnson did not accompany her family to New Hampshire, having been sent to live with Lt. Col. Jonathan White of Leominster, Massachusetts, at age eight. When Johnson was seventeen she married James Johnson, an Irishman and former indentured servant. Johnson and her new husband relocated to Charlestown in 1749, reuniting with her parents.
Johnson and her husband eventually moved into a log cabin outside of the fort’s walls. They prospered at the remote outpost, having three children and doing well in business. The family was celebrating a successful business venture on the night of August 30, 1754, when it was attacked by eleven Abenaki tribesman. Johnson, who was pregnant, along with her husband, three children, sister, and three guests were captured and forced to travel two hundred miles to a village in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Johnson gave birth to her daughter during the journey, aptly naming the child Captive.
Johnson was treated well by her captors, but her husband, sister, and children were sold as slaves to the French. Within a few months, Johnson and Captive were also bought by the French and reunited with some of their family. Johnson’s husband spent the next three years trying to secure his family’s release from slavery by petitioning the government for ransom. Finally, penniless and at the mercy of an angry French government, the family was imprisoned in Quebec, where it suffered smallpox, starvation, and exposure. While imprisoned, Johnson gave birth to a child that died within the day.
In 1757, Johnson and some members of her family were released from prison and placed on a ship to England. Almost immediately, they boarded a return ship to America. Johnson was reunited with her husband in 1758, but two of their children were still missing. The couple was reunited long enough to conceive another child, but, sadly, James Johnson was killed shortly thereafter while serving in the militia. Within the next two years, Johnson found her two missing children, but neither spoke English (one child had been raised by the Abenaki and the other by the French) nor remembered their mother. Johnson then began the arduous task of settling her husband’s estate, a feat that proved nearly impossible for a woman in New England at that time. She was forced to sell all of her possessions but was able to retain the log home that her husband had built.
In 1762, Johnson married her second husband, John Hastings Jr., a longtime resident of Charlestown, and the couple had two children. Johnson published her remarkable life story, A Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Johnson: Containing an Account of Her Sufferings During Four Years with the Indians and French, in 1796.