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 settlements increased, and the whole country around her was
inhabited by a rich and respectable people, principally from
New-England, as much distinguished for their spirit of inquisitiveness
as for their habits of industry and honesty, who had all heard from
one source and another a part of her life in detached pieces, and
had obtained an idea that the whole taken in connection would afford
instruction and amusement.
Many gentlemen of respectability, felt anxious that her narrative
might be laid before the public, with a view not only to perpetuate the
remembrance of the atrocities of the savages in former times, but to
preserve some historical facts which they supposed to be intimately
connected with her life, and which otherwise must be lost.
Forty years had passed since the close of the Revolutionary war, and
almost seventy years had seen Mrs. Jemison with the Indians, when Daniel
W. Banister, Esq. at the instance of several gentlemen, and prompted
by his own ambition to add something to the accumulating fund of useful
knowledge, resolved, in the autumn of 1823, to embrace that time, while
she was capable of recollecting and reciting the scenes through which
she had passed, to collect from herself, and to publish to an accurate
account of her life.
I was employed to collect the materials, and prepare the work for the
press; and accordingly went to the house of Mrs. Jennet Whaley in the
town of Castile, Genesee co. N.Y. in company with the publisher, who
procured the interesting subject of the following narrative, to come to
that place (a distance of four miles) and there repeat the story of her
eventful life. She came on foot in company with Mr. Thomas Clute, whom
she considers her protector, and tarried almost three days, which time
was busily occupied in taking a sketch of her narrative as she recited
it.
Her appearance was well calculated to excite a great degree of sympathy
in a stranger, who had been partially informed of her origin, when
comparing her present situation with what it probably would have been,
had she been permitted to have remained with her friends, and to have
enjoyed the blessings of civilization.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account