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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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter sixteen 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 Lynn Carroll. A
Narrative of the Life of Missus Mary Jemison by James E. Seber,
(00:25):
Chapter sixteen. When I review my life, the privations that
I have suffered, the hardships I have endured, the vicissitudes
I have passed, and the complete revolution that I have
experienced in my manner of living. When I consider my
reduction from a civilized to a savage state, and the
(00:47):
various steps by which that process has been effected, and
that my life has been prolonged and my health and
reasons spared, it seems a miracle that I am unable
to account for, and is a tragic medley that I
hope will never be repeated. The bare loss of liberty
is but a mere trifle when compared with the circumstances
(01:10):
that necessarily attend and are inseparably connected with it. It
is the recollection of what we once were, of the friends,
the home, and the pleasures that we have left or lost,
the anticipation of misery, the appearance of wretchedness, the anxiety
for freedom, the hope of release, the devising of means
(01:34):
of escaping, and the vigilance with which we watch our keepers,
that constitute the nauseous dregs of the bitter cup of slavery.
I am sensible, however, that no one can pass from
a state of freedom to that of slavery, and in
the last situation rest perfectly contented. But as everyone knows
(01:56):
that great exertions of the mind tend directly to debilitate
the body, it will appear obvious that we ought, when confined,
to exert all our faculties, to promote our present comfort,
and let future days provide their own sacrifices in regard
to ourselves, just as we feel we are. For the
(02:20):
preservation of my life to the present time, I am
indebted to an excellent constitution with which I have been
blessed in as great a degree as any other person.
After I arrived to years of understanding, the care of
my own health was one of my principal studies, and
(02:41):
by avoiding exposures to wet and cold by temperance in eating,
abstaining from the use of spirits, and shunning the excesses
to which I was frequently exposed, I affected my object
beyond what I expected. I have never once been sick
till within a year or two, only as I have
(03:03):
related spirits and tobacco. I have never used, and I
have never once attended an Indian frolic. When I was
taken prisoner, and for some time after that, spirits was
not known, and when it was first introduced, it was
in small quantities and used only by the Indians, so
(03:24):
that it was a long time before the Indian women
begun to even taste it. After the French War, for
a number of years it was the practice of the
Indians of our tribe to send to Niagara and get
two or three kegs of rum in all six or
eight gallons, and hold a frolic as long as it lasted.
(03:46):
When the rum was brought to the town, all the
Indians collected, and before a drop was drunk, gave all
their knives, tomahawks, guns and other instruments of war to
one Indian whose business it was to bury them in
a private place, keep them concealed, and remain perfectly sober.
(04:07):
Till the frolic was ended. Having thus divested themselves, they
commenced drinking and continued their frolic till every drop was consumed.
If any of them became quarrelsome or got to fighting,
those who were sober enough bound them upon the ground,
where they were obliged to lie till they got sober,
(04:29):
and then were unbound. When the fumes of the spirits
had left the company, the sober Indian returned to each
the instruments with which they had entrusted him, and all
went home satisfied. A frolic of that kind was held
but once a year, and that at the time the
Indians quit their hunting and come in with their deer skins.
(04:52):
In those frolics, the women never participated. Soon after the
Revolutionary War, however, it's became common in our tribe and
has been used indiscriminately by both sexests, though there are
not so frequent instances of intoxication amongst the Squaws as
amongst the Indians. To the introduction and use of that
(05:16):
baneful article which has made such devastation in our tribes
and threatens the extinction of our people, the Indians, I
can with the greatest propriety impute the whole of my
misfortune in losing my three sons. But as I have
before observed, not even the love of life will restrain
(05:37):
an Indian from sipping the poison that he knows will
destroy him. The voice of nature, the rebukes of reason,
the advice of parents, the expostulations of friends, and the
numerous instances of sudden death are all insufficient to reclaim
an Indian who has once experienced the exhilarating, inebriating effects
(06:01):
of spirits from seeking his grave in the bottom of
his bottle. My strength has been great for a woman
of my size, otherwise I must long ago have died
under the burdens which I was obliged to carry. I
learned to carry loads on my back in a strap
placed across my forehead soon after my captivity, and continue
(06:25):
to carry in the same way upwards of thirty years ago.
With the help of my young children, I backed all
the boards that were used about my house from Allan's
mill at the outlet of Silver Lake, a distance of
five miles. I have planted, hoed and harvested corn every
(06:45):
season but one since I was taken prisoner. Even this
present fall eighteen twenty three, I have hussed my corn
and backed it into the house. The first cow that
I ever owned I bought of a squaw some time
after the revolution. It had been stolen from the enemy.
(07:07):
I had owned it but a few days when it
fell into a hole and almost died before we could
get it out. After this, the squaw wanted to be recanted,
but as I would not give up the cow, I
gave her money enough to make when added to the
sum which I paid her at first thirty five dollars.
(07:27):
Cows were plenty on the Ohio when I lived there,
and of good quality for provisions. I have never suffered
since I came upon the flats, nor have I ever
been in debt to any other hands than my own,
for the plenty that I have shared. My vices that
have been suspected have been but few. It was believed
(07:50):
for a long time by some of our people that
I was a great witch, but they were unable to
prove my guilt, and consequently I escaped the sir and
doom of those who are convicted of that crime which
by Indians is considered as henous as murder. Some of
my children had light brown hair and tolerable fair skin,
(08:13):
which used to make some say that I stole them.
Yet as I was ever conscious of my own constancy,
I never thought that anyone really believed that I was
guilty of adultery. I have been the mother of eight children,
three of whom are now living, and I have at
this time thirty nine grandchildren and fourteen great grandchildren, all
(08:36):
living in the neighborhood of Genesee River and at Buffalo.
I live in my own house and on my own
land with my youngest daughter Polly, who is married to
George Chogo and has three children. My daughter Nancy, who
is married to Billy green lives about eighty rods south
(08:57):
of my house and has seven children. My other daughter, Betsy,
is married to John Greene, has seven children and resides
eighty rods north of my house. Thus, situated in the
midst of my children, I expect I shall soon leave
the world and make room for the rising generation. I
(09:19):
feel the weight of years with which I am loaded,
and am sensible of my daily failure in seeing, hearing,
and strength. But my only anxiety is for my family.
If my family will live happily and I can be
exempted from trouble while I have to stay. I feel
(09:39):
as though I could lay down in peace, a life
that has been checked in almost every hour with troubles
of a deeper dye than are commonly experienced by mortals.
End of Chapter sixteen,
Chapter sixteen 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 Lynn Carroll. A
Narrative of the Life of Missus Mary Jemison by James E. Seber,
(00:25):
Chapter sixteen. When I review my life, the privations that
I have suffered, the hardships I have endured, the vicissitudes
I have passed, and the complete revolution that I have
experienced in my manner of living. When I consider my
reduction from a civilized to a savage state, and the
(00:47):
various steps by which that process has been effected, and
that my life has been prolonged and my health and
reasons spared, it seems a miracle that I am unable
to account for, and is a tragic medley that I
hope will never be repeated. The bare loss of liberty
is but a mere trifle when compared with the circumstances
(01:10):
that necessarily attend and are inseparably connected with it. It
is the recollection of what we once were, of the friends,
the home, and the pleasures that we have left or lost,
the anticipation of misery, the appearance of wretchedness, the anxiety
for freedom, the hope of release, the devising of means
(01:34):
of escaping, and the vigilance with which we watch our keepers,
that constitute the nauseous dregs of the bitter cup of slavery.
I am sensible, however, that no one can pass from
a state of freedom to that of slavery, and in
the last situation rest perfectly contented. But as everyone knows
(01:56):
that great exertions of the mind tend directly to debilitate
the body, it will appear obvious that we ought, when confined,
to exert all our faculties, to promote our present comfort,
and let future days provide their own sacrifices in regard
to ourselves, just as we feel we are. For the
(02:20):
preservation of my life to the present time, I am
indebted to an excellent constitution with which I have been
blessed in as great a degree as any other person.
After I arrived to years of understanding, the care of
my own health was one of my principal studies, and
(02:41):
by avoiding exposures to wet and cold by temperance in eating,
abstaining from the use of spirits, and shunning the excesses
to which I was frequently exposed, I affected my object
beyond what I expected. I have never once been sick
till within a year or two, only as I have
(03:03):
related spirits and tobacco. I have never used, and I
have never once attended an Indian frolic. When I was
taken prisoner, and for some time after that, spirits was
not known, and when it was first introduced, it was
in small quantities and used only by the Indians, so
(03:24):
that it was a long time before the Indian women
begun to even taste it. After the French War, for
a number of years it was the practice of the
Indians of our tribe to send to Niagara and get
two or three kegs of rum in all six or
eight gallons, and hold a frolic as long as it lasted.
(03:46):
When the rum was brought to the town, all the
Indians collected, and before a drop was drunk, gave all
their knives, tomahawks, guns and other instruments of war to
one Indian whose business it was to bury them in
a private place, keep them concealed, and remain perfectly sober.
(04:07):
Till the frolic was ended. Having thus divested themselves, they
commenced drinking and continued their frolic till every drop was consumed.
If any of them became quarrelsome or got to fighting,
those who were sober enough bound them upon the ground,
where they were obliged to lie till they got sober,
(04:29):
and then were unbound. When the fumes of the spirits
had left the company, the sober Indian returned to each
the instruments with which they had entrusted him, and all
went home satisfied. A frolic of that kind was held
but once a year, and that at the time the
Indians quit their hunting and come in with their deer skins.
(04:52):
In those frolics, the women never participated. Soon after the
Revolutionary War, however, it's became common in our tribe and
has been used indiscriminately by both sexests, though there are
not so frequent instances of intoxication amongst the Squaws as
amongst the Indians. To the introduction and use of that
(05:16):
baneful article which has made such devastation in our tribes
and threatens the extinction of our people, the Indians, I
can with the greatest propriety impute the whole of my
misfortune in losing my three sons. But as I have
before observed, not even the love of life will restrain
(05:37):
an Indian from sipping the poison that he knows will
destroy him. The voice of nature, the rebukes of reason,
the advice of parents, the expostulations of friends, and the
numerous instances of sudden death are all insufficient to reclaim
an Indian who has once experienced the exhilarating, inebriating effects
(06:01):
of spirits from seeking his grave in the bottom of
his bottle. My strength has been great for a woman
of my size, otherwise I must long ago have died
under the burdens which I was obliged to carry. I
learned to carry loads on my back in a strap
placed across my forehead soon after my captivity, and continue
(06:25):
to carry in the same way upwards of thirty years ago.
With the help of my young children, I backed all
the boards that were used about my house from Allan's
mill at the outlet of Silver Lake, a distance of
five miles. I have planted, hoed and harvested corn every
(06:45):
season but one since I was taken prisoner. Even this
present fall eighteen twenty three, I have hussed my corn
and backed it into the house. The first cow that
I ever owned I bought of a squaw some time
after the revolution. It had been stolen from the enemy.
(07:07):
I had owned it but a few days when it
fell into a hole and almost died before we could
get it out. After this, the squaw wanted to be recanted,
but as I would not give up the cow, I
gave her money enough to make when added to the
sum which I paid her at first thirty five dollars.
(07:27):
Cows were plenty on the Ohio when I lived there,
and of good quality for provisions. I have never suffered
since I came upon the flats, nor have I ever
been in debt to any other hands than my own,
for the plenty that I have shared. My vices that
have been suspected have been but few. It was believed
(07:50):
for a long time by some of our people that
I was a great witch, but they were unable to
prove my guilt, and consequently I escaped the sir and
doom of those who are convicted of that crime which
by Indians is considered as henous as murder. Some of
my children had light brown hair and tolerable fair skin,
(08:13):
which used to make some say that I stole them.
Yet as I was ever conscious of my own constancy,
I never thought that anyone really believed that I was
guilty of adultery. I have been the mother of eight children,
three of whom are now living, and I have at
this time thirty nine grandchildren and fourteen great grandchildren, all
(08:36):
living in the neighborhood of Genesee River and at Buffalo.
I live in my own house and on my own
land with my youngest daughter Polly, who is married to
George Chogo and has three children. My daughter Nancy, who
is married to Billy green lives about eighty rods south
(08:57):
of my house and has seven children. My other daughter, Betsy,
is married to John Greene, has seven children and resides
eighty rods north of my house. Thus, situated in the
midst of my children, I expect I shall soon leave
the world and make room for the rising generation. I
(09:19):
feel the weight of years with which I am loaded,
and am sensible of my daily failure in seeing, hearing,
and strength. But my only anxiety is for my family.
If my family will live happily and I can be
exempted from trouble while I have to stay. I feel
(09:39):
as though I could lay down in peace, a life
that has been checked in almost every hour with troubles
of a deeper dye than are commonly experienced by mortals.
End of Chapter sixteen,
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