A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison — John Shaqi
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
The husband had for some considerable length of time felt a degree of
jealousy that Allen was trespassing upon him with the consent of his
squaw; but when he saw Allen dressed in so fine an Indian cap, and found
that his dear Nanticoke had presented it to him, his doubts all left
him, and he became so violently enraged that he caught her by the hair
of her head, dragged her on the ground to my house, a distance of forty
rods, and threw her in at the door. Hiokatoo, my husband, exasperated
at the sight of so much inhumanity, hastily took down his old tomahawk,
which for awhile had lain idle, shook it over the cuckold's head, and
bade him jogo (i. e. go off.) The enraged husband, well knowing that he
should feel a blow if he waited to hear the order repeated, instantly
retreated, and went down the river to his cattle. We protected the poor
Nanticoke woman, and gave her victuals; and Allen sympathized with
her in her misfortunes till spring, when her husband came to her,
acknowledged his former errors, and that he had abused her without a
cause, promised a reformation, and she received him with every mark of
a renewal of her affection. They went home lovingly, and soon after
removed to Niagara.
The same spring, Allen commenced working my flats, and continued to
labor there till after the peace in 1783. He then went to Philadelphia
on some business that detained him but a few days, and returned with a
horse and some dry goods, which he carried to a place that is now called
Mount Morris, where he built or bought a small house.
The British and Indians on the Niagara frontier, dissatisfied with the
treaty of peace, were determined, at all hazards, to continue their
depredations upon the white settlements which lay between them and
Albany. They actually made ready, and were about setting out on an
expedition to that effect, when Allen (who by this time understood
their customs of war) took a belt of wampum, which he had fraudulently
procured, and carried it as a token of peace from the Indians to the
commander of the nearest American military post.
The Indians were soon answered by the American officer that the wampum
was cordially accepted and, that a continuance of peace was ardently
wished for. The Indians, at this, were chagrined and disappointed beyond
measure; but as they held the wampum to be a sacred thing, they dared
not to go against the import of its meaning, and immediately buried the
hatchet as it respected the people of the United State; and smoked
the pipe of peace. They, however, resolved to punish Allen for his
officiousness in meddling with their national affairs, by presenting the
sacred wampum without their knowledge, and went about devising means for
his detection. A party was accordingly despatched from Fort Niagara to
apprehend him; with orders to conduct him to that post for trial, or for
safe keeping, till such time as his fate should be determined upon in a
legal manner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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