August 18, 2025 • 10 mins
In 1755, twelve-year-old Mary Jemison was captured by Native Americans, marking the beginning of a remarkable journey that would define her life. This compelling narrative recounts the tragic murder of her father and family, her profound struggles, and the complexities of her marriages to two Native men. Mary’s account reveals the harsh realities she faced, the brutalities of the French and Revolutionary Wars, and the historical truths that have long remained untold. Join us as we explore her extraordinary story, as narrated by James Seaver.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter ten of a narrative of the Life of Missus
Mary Jemison. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Joy Easton. A
Narrative of the Life of Missus Mary Jemison by James E. Seaver,
(00:23):
Chapter ten. I have frequently heard it asserted by white people,
and can truly say from my own experience that the
time at which parents take the most satisfaction and comfort
with their families is when their children are young, incapable
of providing for their own wants, and are about the
fireside where there can be daily observed and instructed. Few
(00:46):
mothers perhaps have had less trouble with their children during
their minority than myself. In general, my children were friendly
to each other, and it was very seldom that I
knew them to have the least difference or quarrel. So
far indeed, were they from rendering themselves or me uncomfortable,
that I considered myself happy, more so than commonly falls
(01:08):
to the lot of parents, especially to women. My happiness
in this respect, however, was not without alloy for my
son Thomas, from some cause unknown to me, from the
time he was a small lad, always called his brother
John a witch, which was the cause as they grew
towards manhood, of frequent and severe quarrels between them, and
(01:30):
gave me much trouble and anxiety for their safety. After
Thomas and John arrived to manhood. In addition to the
former charge, John got two wives, with whom he lived
till the time of his death. Although polygamy was tolerated
in our tribe, Thomas considered it a violation of good
and wholesome rules in society, intending directly to destroy that
(01:53):
friendly social intercourse and love that ought to be the
happy result of matrimony and chastis. Consequently, he frequently reprimanded
John by telling him that his conduct was beneath the
dignity and inconsistent with the principles of good Indians, indecent
and unbecoming a gentleman, and as he never could reconcile
(02:15):
himself to it, he was frequently, almost constantly when they
were together, talking to him on the same subject. John
always resented such reprimand and reproof with a great degree
of passion, though they never quarreled unless Thomas was intoxicated.
In his fits of drunkenness, Thomas seemed to lose all
his natural reason and to conduct like a wild or
(02:38):
crazy man, without regard to relatives, decency, or propriety. At
such times he often threatened to take my life for
having raised a witch, as he called John, and has
gone so far as to raise his tomahawk to split
my head. He however, never struck me, but on John's account,
he struck Haiokatu, and thereby excited in John a high
(03:00):
degree of indignation, which was extinguished only by blood. For
a number of years, their difficulties and consequent unhappiness continued,
and rather increased, continually, exciting in my breast the most
fearful apprehensions and greatest anxiety for their safety. With tears
in my eyes, I advised them to become reconciled to
(03:21):
each other and to be friendly. Told them the consequences
of their continuing to cherish so much malignity and malice
that it would end in their destruction, the disgrace of
their families, and bring me down to the grave. No
one can conceive of the constant trouble that I daily
endured on their account, on the account of my two
oldest sons, whom I loved equally and with all the
(03:44):
feelings and affection of a tender mother, stimulated by an
anxious concern for their fate. Parents mothers especially will love
their children, though ever so unkind and disobedient. Their eyes
of compassion, of real sentimental affection be involuntarily extended after
them in their greatest excesses of iniquity, and those fine
(04:06):
filaments of consanginuity which gently entwine themselves around the heart
where filial love and parental care is equal, will be
lengthened and enlarged to chord seemingly of sufficient strength to
reach and reclaim the wanderer. I know that such exercises
are frequently unavailing, but notwithstanding their ultimate failure, it still
(04:27):
remains true, and ever will, that the love of a
parent for a disobedient child will increase and grow more
and more ardent, so long as a hope of its
reformation is capable of stimulating a disappointed breast. My advice
and expostulations with my sons were abortive, and year after
year their disaffection for each other increased at length Thomas
(04:50):
came to my house on the first day of July
eighteen eleven in my absence, somewhat intoxicated, where he found John,
with whom he immediately commenced the quarrel on their old
subjects of difference. John's anger became desperate. He caught Thomas
by the hair of his head, dragged him out at
the door, and there killed him by a blow which
(05:11):
he gave him on the head with his tomahawk. I
returned soon after and found my son lifeless at the door,
on the spot where he was killed. No one can
judge of my feelings on seeing this mournful spectacle, and
what greatly added to my distress was the fact that
he had fallen by the murderous hand of his brother.
I felt my situation unsupportable, Having passed through various scenes
(05:35):
of trouble of the most cruel and trying kind, I
had hoped to spend my few remaining days in quietude
and to die in peace, surrounded by my family. This
fatal event, however, seemed to be a stream of woe
poured into my cup of afflictions, filling it even to
overflowing and blasting all my prospects. As soon as I
(05:56):
had recovered a little from the shock which I felt
at the sight of my departed son, and some of
my neighbors had come in to assist in taking care
of the corpse, I hired Shanks, an Indian, to go
to Buffalo and carry the sorrowful news of Thomas's death
to our friends at that place, and request the chiefs
to hold a council and dispose of John as they
(06:18):
should think proper. Shanks set out on his errand immediately,
and John, fearing that he should be apprehended and punished
for the crime he had committed, at the same time,
went off towards Canidia. Thomas was decently interred in its style,
corresponding with his rank. The chiefs soon assembled in council
on the trial of John, and, after having seriously examined
(06:41):
the matter according to their laws, justified his conduct and
acquitted him. They considered Thomas to have been the first
transgressor than that for the abuses which he had offered,
he had merited from John the treatment that he had received. John,
on learning the decision of the council, returned to his family. Thomas,
except when intoxicated, which was not frequent. Was a kind
(07:05):
and tender child, willing to assist me in my labor
and to remove every obstacle to my comfort. His natural
abilities were said to be of a superior caste, and
he soared above the trifling subjects of revenge, which are
common amongst Indians, as being far beneath his attention. In
his childish and boyish days. His natural turn was to
(07:26):
practice in the art of war. Though he despised the
cruelties that the warriors inflicted upon their subjugated enemies, he
was manly in his deportment, courageous and active, and commanded respect.
Though he appeared well pleased with peace, he was cunning
in Indian warfare and succeeded to admiration in the execution
of his plans. At the age of fourteen or fifteen years,
(07:50):
he went into the war with manly fortitude, armed with
a tomahawk and scalping knife, and when he returned brought
one white man, a prisoner whom he had taken with
his own own hands on the west branch of the
Susquehanna River. It so happened that as he was looking
out for his enemies, he discovered two men boiling sap
in the woods. He watched them unperceived till dark, when
(08:13):
he advanced with a noiseless step to where they were standing,
caught one of them before they were apprized of danger,
and conducted him to the camp. He was well treated
while a prisoner, and redeemed at the close of the war.
At the time Gudjes's Tagilla gave me liberty to go
to my friends. Thomas was anxious to go with me,
(08:34):
but as I have before observed, the chiefs would not
suffer him to leave them on the account of his
courage and skill in war, expecting that they should need
his assistance. He was a great counselor and a chief
when quite young, and in the last capacity went two
or three times to Philadelphia to assist in making treaties
with the people of the States. Thomas had four wives,
(08:57):
by whom he had eight children. Jacob Jimmison, his second
son by his last wife, who is at this time
twenty seven or twenty eight years of age, went to
Dartmouth College in the spring of eighteen sixteen for the
purpose of receiving a good education, where it was said
that he was an industrious scholar and made great proficiency
(09:17):
in the study of the different branches to which he attended.
Having spent two years at that institution, he returned in
the winter of eighteen eighteen, and is now at Buffalo,
where I have understood that he contemplates commencing the study
of medicine as a profession. Thomas, at the time he
was killed, was a few moons over fifty two years old,
(09:38):
and John was forty eight. As he was naturally good
natured and possessed a friendly disposition, he would not have
come to so untimely an end had it not been
for his intemperance. He fell a victim to the use
of ardent spirits, a poison that will soon exterminate the
Indian tribes in this part of the country, and leave
(09:58):
their names without a root or branch. The thought is melancholy,
but no arguments, no examples, however persuasive or impressive, are
sufficient to deter an Indian for an hour from taking
the potent draft, which he knows at the time will
derange his faculties, reduce him to a level with the beasts,
or deprive him of life. End of Chapter ten
Chapter ten of a narrative of the Life of Missus
Mary Jemison. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Joy Easton. A
Narrative of the Life of Missus Mary Jemison by James E. Seaver,
(00:23):
Chapter ten. I have frequently heard it asserted by white people,
and can truly say from my own experience that the
time at which parents take the most satisfaction and comfort
with their families is when their children are young, incapable
of providing for their own wants, and are about the
fireside where there can be daily observed and instructed. Few
(00:46):
mothers perhaps have had less trouble with their children during
their minority than myself. In general, my children were friendly
to each other, and it was very seldom that I
knew them to have the least difference or quarrel. So
far indeed, were they from rendering themselves or me uncomfortable,
that I considered myself happy, more so than commonly falls
(01:08):
to the lot of parents, especially to women. My happiness
in this respect, however, was not without alloy for my
son Thomas, from some cause unknown to me, from the
time he was a small lad, always called his brother
John a witch, which was the cause as they grew
towards manhood, of frequent and severe quarrels between them, and
(01:30):
gave me much trouble and anxiety for their safety. After
Thomas and John arrived to manhood. In addition to the
former charge, John got two wives, with whom he lived
till the time of his death. Although polygamy was tolerated
in our tribe, Thomas considered it a violation of good
and wholesome rules in society, intending directly to destroy that
(01:53):
friendly social intercourse and love that ought to be the
happy result of matrimony and chastis. Consequently, he frequently reprimanded
John by telling him that his conduct was beneath the
dignity and inconsistent with the principles of good Indians, indecent
and unbecoming a gentleman, and as he never could reconcile
(02:15):
himself to it, he was frequently, almost constantly when they
were together, talking to him on the same subject. John
always resented such reprimand and reproof with a great degree
of passion, though they never quarreled unless Thomas was intoxicated.
In his fits of drunkenness, Thomas seemed to lose all
his natural reason and to conduct like a wild or
(02:38):
crazy man, without regard to relatives, decency, or propriety. At
such times he often threatened to take my life for
having raised a witch, as he called John, and has
gone so far as to raise his tomahawk to split
my head. He however, never struck me, but on John's account,
he struck Haiokatu, and thereby excited in John a high
(03:00):
degree of indignation, which was extinguished only by blood. For
a number of years, their difficulties and consequent unhappiness continued,
and rather increased, continually, exciting in my breast the most
fearful apprehensions and greatest anxiety for their safety. With tears
in my eyes, I advised them to become reconciled to
(03:21):
each other and to be friendly. Told them the consequences
of their continuing to cherish so much malignity and malice
that it would end in their destruction, the disgrace of
their families, and bring me down to the grave. No
one can conceive of the constant trouble that I daily
endured on their account, on the account of my two
oldest sons, whom I loved equally and with all the
(03:44):
feelings and affection of a tender mother, stimulated by an
anxious concern for their fate. Parents mothers especially will love
their children, though ever so unkind and disobedient. Their eyes
of compassion, of real sentimental affection be involuntarily extended after
them in their greatest excesses of iniquity, and those fine
(04:06):
filaments of consanginuity which gently entwine themselves around the heart
where filial love and parental care is equal, will be
lengthened and enlarged to chord seemingly of sufficient strength to
reach and reclaim the wanderer. I know that such exercises
are frequently unavailing, but notwithstanding their ultimate failure, it still
(04:27):
remains true, and ever will, that the love of a
parent for a disobedient child will increase and grow more
and more ardent, so long as a hope of its
reformation is capable of stimulating a disappointed breast. My advice
and expostulations with my sons were abortive, and year after
year their disaffection for each other increased at length Thomas
(04:50):
came to my house on the first day of July
eighteen eleven in my absence, somewhat intoxicated, where he found John,
with whom he immediately commenced the quarrel on their old
subjects of difference. John's anger became desperate. He caught Thomas
by the hair of his head, dragged him out at
the door, and there killed him by a blow which
(05:11):
he gave him on the head with his tomahawk. I
returned soon after and found my son lifeless at the door,
on the spot where he was killed. No one can
judge of my feelings on seeing this mournful spectacle, and
what greatly added to my distress was the fact that
he had fallen by the murderous hand of his brother.
I felt my situation unsupportable, Having passed through various scenes
(05:35):
of trouble of the most cruel and trying kind, I
had hoped to spend my few remaining days in quietude
and to die in peace, surrounded by my family. This
fatal event, however, seemed to be a stream of woe
poured into my cup of afflictions, filling it even to
overflowing and blasting all my prospects. As soon as I
(05:56):
had recovered a little from the shock which I felt
at the sight of my departed son, and some of
my neighbors had come in to assist in taking care
of the corpse, I hired Shanks, an Indian, to go
to Buffalo and carry the sorrowful news of Thomas's death
to our friends at that place, and request the chiefs
to hold a council and dispose of John as they
(06:18):
should think proper. Shanks set out on his errand immediately,
and John, fearing that he should be apprehended and punished
for the crime he had committed, at the same time,
went off towards Canidia. Thomas was decently interred in its style,
corresponding with his rank. The chiefs soon assembled in council
on the trial of John, and, after having seriously examined
(06:41):
the matter according to their laws, justified his conduct and
acquitted him. They considered Thomas to have been the first
transgressor than that for the abuses which he had offered,
he had merited from John the treatment that he had received. John,
on learning the decision of the council, returned to his family. Thomas,
except when intoxicated, which was not frequent. Was a kind
(07:05):
and tender child, willing to assist me in my labor
and to remove every obstacle to my comfort. His natural
abilities were said to be of a superior caste, and
he soared above the trifling subjects of revenge, which are
common amongst Indians, as being far beneath his attention. In
his childish and boyish days. His natural turn was to
(07:26):
practice in the art of war. Though he despised the
cruelties that the warriors inflicted upon their subjugated enemies, he
was manly in his deportment, courageous and active, and commanded respect.
Though he appeared well pleased with peace, he was cunning
in Indian warfare and succeeded to admiration in the execution
of his plans. At the age of fourteen or fifteen years,
(07:50):
he went into the war with manly fortitude, armed with
a tomahawk and scalping knife, and when he returned brought
one white man, a prisoner whom he had taken with
his own own hands on the west branch of the
Susquehanna River. It so happened that as he was looking
out for his enemies, he discovered two men boiling sap
in the woods. He watched them unperceived till dark, when
(08:13):
he advanced with a noiseless step to where they were standing,
caught one of them before they were apprized of danger,
and conducted him to the camp. He was well treated
while a prisoner, and redeemed at the close of the war.
At the time Gudjes's Tagilla gave me liberty to go
to my friends. Thomas was anxious to go with me,
(08:34):
but as I have before observed, the chiefs would not
suffer him to leave them on the account of his
courage and skill in war, expecting that they should need
his assistance. He was a great counselor and a chief
when quite young, and in the last capacity went two
or three times to Philadelphia to assist in making treaties
with the people of the States. Thomas had four wives,
(08:57):
by whom he had eight children. Jacob Jimmison, his second
son by his last wife, who is at this time
twenty seven or twenty eight years of age, went to
Dartmouth College in the spring of eighteen sixteen for the
purpose of receiving a good education, where it was said
that he was an industrious scholar and made great proficiency
(09:17):
in the study of the different branches to which he attended.
Having spent two years at that institution, he returned in
the winter of eighteen eighteen, and is now at Buffalo,
where I have understood that he contemplates commencing the study
of medicine as a profession. Thomas, at the time he
was killed, was a few moons over fifty two years old,
(09:38):
and John was forty eight. As he was naturally good
natured and possessed a friendly disposition, he would not have
come to so untimely an end had it not been
for his intemperance. He fell a victim to the use
of ardent spirits, a poison that will soon exterminate the
Indian tribes in this part of the country, and leave
(09:58):
their names without a root or branch. The thought is melancholy,
but no arguments, no examples, however persuasive or impressive, are
sufficient to deter an Indian for an hour from taking
the potent draft, which he knows at the time will
derange his faculties, reduce him to a level with the beasts,
or deprive him of life. End of Chapter ten
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