John Williams
John Williams is a man who was living in Deersfield during Queen Anne's War, which came about a half-of-a-century before the famous French and Indian War. The Native communities around American colonies had various allegiances to European states, depending on who made enemies with them, so when the French declared war on the British, a Mohawk tribe invade William's town, killed some of his children and captured the rest of the family. Eventually, they negotiated his release, but at a grave cost—his daughter was not released.
Eunice
Eunice is a real-life English girl who was kidnapped alongside her family by Mohawk Native Americans who brutally murdered and scalped her baby siblings, taking her and her other siblings and parents to their tribe where they used John Williams, Eunice's father, as a trade to free the French Captain Jean Baptiste Guyon. Eunice was not released though. She was kept and raised as a Native, and she was married to a Native man and raised a family. She even forgot the English language.
Stephen
Stephen is just like his father John Williams in his intensity and rigor, but the truth of the matter is that Stephen carries his father's torch with no success. Not only does he also fail to make Eunice come home, he also loses track of her for a long time. Eventually they reconnect late in life, and they have ten years or so in contact with one another before they each die. Stephen dies at the age of ninety.
The Kahnawake Native Americans
When the Williams family began their fight to re-obtain their daughter, Eunice, John Williams was tasked with negotiating with a hostile Native people group who had historically opposed the English. He tried for years, but was unable to get the Kahnawake Natives to release Eunice—she was to be married to one of the tribesmen. By the time Stephen and Eunice reunite, she is complete integrated into the Kahnawake community which settled in Canada.
