A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary JemisonSeaver, James E. (James Everett)
History
A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison
Seaver, James E. (James Everett)
Jemison, Mary, 1743-1833; Seneca Indians
In one or two days after the skirmish at Connissius 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 pan 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 that it was Sullivan's intention to watch our
return, and then to take us by surprize, 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 the same night arrived on the Gardow flats, where I have ever since
resided.
At that time, two negroes, who had run away from their masters sometime
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 to them to husk corn till the whole was harvested.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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