The attack on Deefield, Massachisetts, has become an archetypal moment in American history, representative of a long era of violent frontier encounter between the diverse peoples of colonial North America. On 29 February 1704, a joint French and Indian raiding party surprised the settlement, killing and taking captive over half of Deerfield's 300 occupants. The daring and calculated raid was a key point in the War of Spanish Succession, with ramifications that would be felt for years to come by many peoples.

Starting in 1707 with Reverend John William's The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion, the Deerfield raid has been explored by generations of authors. Evan Haefeli and Kevin Sweeney go far beyond previous efforts to craft a new narrative of Deerfield that encompasses all of its participants and places the event in the broader context of imperial conflict.