Document 6.10 Mary Jemison, The War's Impact on Native Americans, 1823

Mary Jemison | The War's Impact on Native Americans, 1823

Many Indian communities chose to aid either the British or the colonists, but even those who sought to remain neutral were often affected by the war. In the following passage, Mary Jemison describes the impact of the war on her Seneca community. Jemison, an Irish immigrant to the Americas, had been captured in 1758 at the age of fifteen by Shawnee Indians. Though most of her family was killed in the attack, she was spared and eventually given to the Seneca tribe. She married a Seneca man and had six children. In 1823 she recounted her capture and life among the Senecas in Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, which became one of the best-selling books of the 1820s.

In one or two days after the skirmish at Conesus Lake, Sullivan and his army arrived at Genesee River, where they destroyed every article of the food kind that they could lay their hands on. A part of our corn they burnt, and threw the remainder into the river. They burnt our houses, killed what few cattle and horses they could find, destroyed our fruit-trees, and left nothing but the bare soil and timber. But the Indians had eloped, and were not to be found.

Having crossed and recrossed the river, and finished the work of destruction, the army marched off to the east. Our Indians saw them move off, but, suspecting it was Sullivan’s intention to watch our return, and then to take us by surprise, resolved that the main body of our tribe should hunt where we then were, till Sullivan had gone so far that there would be no danger of his returning to molest us.

This being agreed to, we hunted continually till the Indians concluded that there could be no risk in our once more taking possession of our lands. Accordingly, we all returned; but what were our feelings when we found that there was not a mouthful of any kind of sustenance left—not even enough to keep a child one day from perishing with hunger.

The weather by this time had become cold and stormy; and as we were destitute of houses, and food, too, I immediately resolved to take my children, and look out for myself, without delay. With this intention, I took two of my little ones on my back, bade the other three follow, and traveled up the river to Gardeau Flats, where I arrived that night.

At that time, two negroes, who had run away from their masters some time before, were the only inhabitants of those flats. They lived in a small cabin, and had planted and raised a large field of corn, which they had not yet harvested. As they were in want of help to secure their crop, I hired them to husk corn till the whole harvest arrived. . . .

The next summer after Sullivan’s campaign, our Indians, highly incensed at the whites for the treatment they had received, and the sufferings which they had consequently endured, determined to obtain some redress, by destroying their frontier settlements.

Source: James E. Seaver, ed., Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, 4th ed. (New York: Miller, Orton, and Mulligan, 1856), 123–24; 126.