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 stature she is very short, and considerably under the middle size,
and stands tolerably erect, with her head bent forward, apparently from
her having for a long time been accustomed to carrying heavy burdens in
a strap placed across her forehead. Her complexion is very white for
a woman of her age, and although the wrinkles of fourscore years are
deeply indented in her cheeks, yet the crimson of youth is distinctly
visible. Her eyes are light blue, a little faded by age, and naturally
brilliant and sparkling. Her sight is quite dim, though she is able to
perform her necessary labor without the assistance of glasses. Her cheek
bones are high, and rather prominent, and her front teeth, in the
lower jaw, are sound and good. When she looks up and is engaged in
conversation her countenance is very expressive; but from her long
residence with the Indians, she has acquired the habit of peeping from
under eye-brows as they do with the head inclined downwards. Formerly
her hair was of a light chestnut brown--it is now quite grey, a little
curled, of middling length and tied in a bunch behind. She informed me
that she had never worn a cap nor a comb.
She speaks English plainly and distinctly, with a little of the
Irish emphasis, and has the use of words so well as to render
herself intelligible on any subject with which she is acquainted. Her
recollection and memory exceeded my expectation. It cannot be reasonably
supposed, that a person of her age has kept the events of seventy years
in so complete a chain as to be able to assign to each its proper time
and place; she, however, made her recital with as few obvious mistakes
as might be found in that of a person of fifty.
She walks with a quick step without a staff, and I was informed by Mr.
Clute, that she could yet cross a stream on a log or pole as steadily as
any other person.
Her passions are easily excited. At a number of periods in her
narration, tears trickled down her grief worn cheek, and at the same
time, a rising sigh would stop her utterance.
Industry is a virtue which she has uniformly practised from the day of
her adoption to the present. She pounds her samp, cooks for herself,
gathers and chops wood, feeds her cattle and poultry, and performs
other laborious services. Last season she planted, tended and gathered
corn--in short she is always busy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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