wonder how I was introduced to this book, It was short and not printed perfectly but I am very glad to have found it, At times the description of torture by the Indians was upsetting and too graphic but Mary Jemison witnessed it and hated it but still accepted her life with the Indians after her capture.
Her own childrenwho were then biracialwere prone to violenceat least the sons were,
I like it when a book sends me to do more research, I looked up some of the villains in the story and found more about them on Wikipedia, It's possible the source was this very book but I think the stories were corroborated by other sources as well, I gave this narrativebecause of the stark and profound experience that Mary Jemison had to endure, While in her eighties, she gave this account to a Dr, Seaver who wrote down her remembrances, To actually hear of what she endured, her family being massacred by the Senecathe description of the Indians cleaning off her parents' scalps is heartbreaking.
. . she was butyears of age, Life was exceedingly hard for Mary but somehow she adjusted to life with the Senecas, carrying heavy loads on her back with only a burden strap across her forehead to lug corn or babies.
It sounds like she rarely complained and was quite passive like the Indian squaws themselves, She was witness to brutal deaths, strange festivals and frolics and lived her years as an Indian on the Genessee River in upstate NY.
The absolute saddest aspect of the story comes in her later life after she birthschildren,boys andgirls, They were "half breeds" but she extols the dangers of the "ardent spirits" or "the fire water" that the white man often gave the Indians.
When they became intoxicated terrible quarrels would ensue and disaster often followed,
In fact, her middle son John, more Indian than white and accused of being witch at times was more jealous of hisother brothers who favored the white ways.
He realized that these other brothers were his mother's favorites and tragedy strikes, I will not give what happens away, but it's just about the saddest account I've read about, But still Mary Jemison lives on, Ironically, she only grew to four and a half feet, so short for one of ScotsIrish blood, My own theory is that she was stunted due to the trauma she experienced and part of her would always be that young girl missing her family and longing to be reunited with them.
She had chances to return, Yet she worried about her half breed children and would they be accepted by her relatives She thought not, This is a short book but she really brings to life some of the characters that come and go in her life, Ebeneizer Allen, a "white Indian" who lives on her land and then becomes a wanted man, her second husband the fierce warrior Hiakotoo, The narrative also helps understand what life was like around the Revolutionary War up near Fort Niagra and that the Seneca favored the French, fought with the British against the Americans and somehow dear Mary survived all these wars.
. . for better or worse.
This is an eye opening account, For all those who think that Indians are peaceful spirits who smoke the peace pipe and pray to Father Sky will be sadly mistaken.
The accounts of burning people alive, random and gratuitous killing, celebrating torture, hanging heads on pikes is grimly given in detail, But still it is a part of history that many do not know or understand, The Senecas had a law that if one of their people was killed by the white man, that a white must be captured or a scalp of an enemy must be presented to the mourning Indian.
It's clear that the Seneca people were filled with the spirit of revenge and superstition but according to Mary Jemison she was treated with tenderness and mercy by those in the tribe.
Informative and very interesting read as part of a little known time in history, I was left disliking Jemison, disliking every indian tribe she describes and basically disliking the entire human race for the atrocities it's capable of.
I read this book many summers ago as a prerequisite for a PA Governor's Institute for the Social Studies that I attended at the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh.
I'm looking forward to perusing through it and my marginal notes after spending Easter weekend in New York's Letchworth State Park which now includes land once reserved for Dehgewanus, or Mary Jemison, and her burial site.
A fascinating document that poses the question “Who is speaking here” At many points in this putative account from a white woman abducted by Indians, the quality of the rhetoric added to the nature of the opinions voiced demonstrates that Seaver, going far beyond his role as amanuensis, is intruding.
Then can this be used to gain insight into Jemisons mentality or the customs and actionslet alone the wordsof the many Indians who play parts in the story Only with the greatest caution, identifying tropes common in the popular American literature of the first quarter of the nineteenth century and seeking, on the other hand, more reliable accounts that can buttress the claims made here.
A very interesting insight into one woman's experience in being captured and raised in a Native Seneca I believe it was American tribe, I felt like she gave great cultural insights into things that would see terribly awful or barbaric, which could be expanded to a better understanding of the differences in relations between the white settlers and the Native counterparts.
Fascinating narrative by an Irish woman who was abducted by Indians in the mids at the age of, The rest of her family was murdered and scalped, She talks about living as an Indian squaw and being married to two different Indian men and havingchildren with them, She talks about her chance to leave the tribe and how she decided against leaving, Just amazing to imagine her life, . . Would've liked more detail but she was aroundwhen she narrated her life story and this is all there is, . . but it was an excellent glimpse into what she went through, Randomly written
Didn't like trusts just my opinion in sorry, It was to randomly written hard to keep my attention, Was hoping for a better insight, Tough to physically read but highly insightful nonetheless, A riveting historical account of one of the most revered pioneers in American history, Strongly recommended for fans of personal narrative and early America, Good read
Really interesting with a lot of history, The story was true and being with Native American Great Grandmother I totally enjoyed the book, It was interesting to learn the story of Mary Jemison and gain insight into how it was, But the read isn't really enjoyable, It was written may years ago in's, The writing style is the kind that has long sentenceswords in some places, There's a LOT of description of the geographic location and description of land, which if you are from that area, may or may not be interesting to you.
The most interesting parts were the insights given into Indian culture, beliefs, practices, If you're into that and history you'll like it, But, if you're looking for a book written in story style, this isn't it, The is mostly a compilation of facts, Story of a white settler girl whose family was taken from the farm close to Philadelphia and murdered by the Indians, She was adopted by the Indian women who recently lost his son, She survives among Indians and despite opportunities to return back, she decides to stay, have family and raise her children, Interestingly she only enumerated her grandchildren and grand grandchildren in the last chapter, but never described any story of them, She mentions only hersons who have been all murdered and three daughters in the last chapter as well, I recently read a book that a friend recommended, Follow the River, and having spend most of my adult life in NW PA and frequently hiking in Western NY, I remembered that we had our own version of Mary Ingles in Western NY named Mary Jemison and I decided to search out books about the White Woman of the Senecas, whose lands and tomb I had visited frequently.
I was able to obtain three books and this one was by far my favorite, For one thing the other two were abridged kid's books based on James Seaver's book and one added silly kiddie drama that I didn't need.
I thought I was downloading James Seaver's book but instead found that this, too, was an abridged bookbut of a better kind, The editor tried to edit out the stuff that Seaver had edited in to Mary's narrative, and tried to come up with a version told in Mary's voice, more true to the narration she gave to Seaver, less about Seaver and more about Mary.
This book proved to be a most pleasing accidental find since Mary's version is what I was looking for, I don't know that it would appeal to those who are not lovers of history, lovers of nonfiction, and hikers of the amazingly beautiful Western New York forests , but I am all of the above.
Mrs. Mary Jemison lived in Western New York State, She was captured by native Americans probably Senecas in the early's when still a child, With her whole family killed, she listened to her mother's last words to be quiet and maybe the Indians would let her live,
Mary was essentially illiterate and she told her story to James Seaver who wrote this book, It was quite interesting. After being adopted by two sisters, Mary adapted well to life with the Senecas, Her story is interesting in that we learn much about native American culture by reading it, Mary had several chances to leave the Indians and return to life with white people, but she chose to remain with the the natives.
Her book will tell you why, Prebaby summer readathon! Won't be for you if you wantst century biography format this was written very long ago, A lot of specific and detailed descriptions of land and procedures, and that may not also be for you,
But it was for me, I found it a very interesting and captivatingth century account ofth andth century lives, Mary certainly lived a life worth preserving and passing down, This was a useful counterpoint to "Indian Captive" by Lois Lenski, a book I adored in childhood and recently found worth rereading as an adult.
This brief volume mainly consists of an edited version of the narrative interview Mary Jemison granted to a white man when she was aboutyears old in.
I disagree with editor Zeinerts decision to include brief biographical information about Mary Jemisons second husband based on the word of someone who claimed to be Jemisons white cousin.
I find that claimed relationship highly suspect, given everything we're told in the book about this "cousin" and his lying, thieving ways, and also everything in that description of her husband, as its clearly given from a very antiIndian perspective.
I suppose Zeinert was tempted to include it given how little she was able to include in Jamisen's own words about the second husband.
I don't know if I can give this book a rating, I'm tempted to give itstars, but how does one rate an edited narrative transcribed by a biased party of an old woman's autobiographical memories Zeinert is correct to point out that there are surely many things left out of Mary Jemison's narrative.
For example, we aren't given any information about her daughters and their sons, or whether more of her children and grandchildren chose to stay within the Iroquois or leave.
I happen to know that at least some stayed within the tribe, as I recall seeing interviewees in documentaries with the last name Jemison Seneca society is matrilineal, so her descendants would have inherited her name if they stayed in the tribe.
We get information instead that was of interest to the white man who questioned her, such as abuse of alcohol among Indians, including the role it played in the fratricidal death of her middleaged sons.
I was sorry to read of her experiencing the traumatic death of her adult children, as one would hope that someone who had been through so much would have a peaceful adulthood.
I was also disturbed to read how she had been taken advantage of several times regarding loss of her land to white people, That's generally a part of any history of American Indians, but I am always disappointed to read it, Ok
Interest story and often quaint language, Take a look, you might like it, You might learn something or other too, She was an amazing lady and made it through some tough, unbelievable times, I wasn't thrilled with the format of the book, A true account of a white, girl child who was captured by the Seneca Indians, her family slaughtered, and her living with them forsome years.
Was very interesting to me as this all took place beforeduringand after the Rev, War in the town and area where I was born and spent majority of my growing up years, In this very slender book, first published in, Mary Jemison recounts her long life with the Indians, She began her sojourn near what became Pittsburg but ended up in Geneseo County near what became Rochester in western New York, Mary, who became completely assimilated into Indian culture, dress, and ways, dictated her adventures to Reverend James E, Seaver in the fall of, when she was in hers and amazing adventures they were!
Born in, when her parents were en route to America, Mary was kidnapped by Shawnee Indians when she wasoryears old her parents and
her brothers and sister were killed and scalped during the French and Indian War, but she was spared.
Mary ends up with the Seneca Indians, where she lives the rest of her life, rechristened with the Indian name Dickewamis, which translates as “pretty girl.
” She goes on to take two husbands, bear eight children, and undergo her share of hardships and heartbreaks, I was moved by her desire to remain with her new Indian family, even when she had chances to return to English civilization, and I was appalled at the brutality and ruthlessness of both the Indians and the whites.
An interesting read, especially at the price of,in the Kindle format. .