a narrative of the life of mrs. mary jemison
The life of Mary Jemison is an interesting case. She was a Scots-Irish settler in Pennsylvania who was stolen from her family in 1755 when she was 12. Her entire family was captured by a roving band of Shawnee and French, and while her family was killed and scalped, Mary was given to two Seneca women and adopted into their family. She was assimilated into the tribal culture and went on to marry two Native American men and have children. The Seneca allied with the British during the war, so Mary followed her tribe in assisting the British troops by giving them food and supplies. Later in life she was given the opportunity to come back to European culture and colonists' way of life, and yet she refused. This refusal demonstrates a preference for the Seneca way of life, which throws the Eurocentric version of American history into question. The inclusion of Mary Jemison in this website was a calculated choice. She does not fit within the scope of study for this project as she herself was not Native American, but her biography offers unique insight to life during the Revolutionary War from the perspective of Native American tribes. Her biography, written by a preacher named James Seaver towards the end of her life, offers tangible primary evidence of Native American life from a woman's perspective. Thus, she is highlighted here for the contributions her biography makes towards history. The biography is offered in two formats below, an audio book and a scanned copy of a first edition from an online archive.
An audiobook recording of the novel available for free on YouTube.
An archival scanned copy of an original copy of the book.
