Deerfield is a New England town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,750 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield, Massachusetts metropolitan area. Located in Western Massachusetts, it includes the village of South Deerfield, Massachusetts. The town is home to Historic Deerfield, Deerfield Academy, a private secondary school University-preparatory school, and two separate private junior boarding schools, Bement School and Eaglebrook School.

History
Deerfield was the northwestern most outpost of New England settlement for several decades during the late seventeenth...

Deerfield is a New England town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,750 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield, Massachusetts metropolitan area. Located in Western Massachusetts, it includes the village of South Deerfield, Massachusetts. The town is home to Historic Deerfield, Deerfield Academy, a private secondary school University-preparatory school, and two separate private junior boarding schools, Bement School and Eaglebrook School.

History
Deerfield was the northwestern most outpost of New England settlement for several decades during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It occupies a fertile portion of the Connecticut River Valley yet was vulnerable to attack because of its position near the Berkshire Mountains. For these reasons it became the site of several Anglo-Indian skirmishes during its early history.

At the time of the Europeans arrival, Deerfield was inhabited by the Pocomtuc nation, with a village by the same name. First settled by European colonists in 1673, Deerfield was incorporated in 1677. Settlement was the result of a court case in which the government in Boston, Massachusetts agreed to return some of the land of the town of Dedham, Massachusetts to native control, and allowed some of Dedham's residents to acquire land in the new township of Pocumtuck. To obtain this land their agent John Plympton signed a treaty with some Pocumtucks, including one named Chaulk -- who had no authority to deed over the land, and only a rough idea of what he was signing.

The settlers then expelled by force the Pocumtuck tribe, who sought France protection. At the Battle of Bloody Brook on September, 18, 1675, the dispossessed Indigenous peoples of the Americas destroyed a small force under the command of Captain Thomas Lathrop before being driven off by reinforcements. Colonial casualties numbered about sixty. In retaliation, at dawn on May 19, 1676, Captain William Turner led an army of settlers in a surprise attack on Peskeompskut, in present day Montague, Massachusetts, then a traditional native gathering place. They killed 200 natives, mostly women and children. When the men of the tribe returned, Turner was routed, and died of a mortal wound at Green River.

On February 29, 1704, during Queen Anne's War, joint France and Indian forces attacked the town in what has become known as the 1704 Raid on Deerfield. Under the command of Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville were 47 Canadiens and 200 Abenaki, Mohawk nation and Wyandot, as well as a few Pocumtuck. They struck at dawn, razing Deerfield and killing 56 colonists including twenty-two men, nine women, and twenty-five children. One hundred and nine survivors including women and children were taken captive and forced on a months-long trek to Quebec. Many died along the way. Some eventually returned to New England, but others remained in French and Native communities such as Wendake, Quebec, for the rest of their lives.