Seaver, James E.:

$3,750 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

A NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF MRS. MARY JEMISON, WHO WAS TAKEN BY THE INDIANS, IN THE YEAR OF 1755, WHEN ONLY ABOUT TWELVE YEARS OF AGE, AND WHO HAS CONTINUED TO RESIDE AMONGST THEM TO THE PRESENT ... "Mary Jemison, who lived her entire adult life among the Seneca Indians, is probably the most famous captive of the nineteenth century. The text remains one of our best accounts of the history and culture of the Senecas, with the appendices presenting Mrs. Jemison's firsthand descriptions of feasts, religion, dances, government, funerals, and agriculture" - Siebert. Over twenty editions followed this exceedingly scarce first edition.Mary Jemison was captured by the Senecas in 1758 at the age of twelve, the rest of her family having been killed. She was initially taken from near Fort Pitt to eastern Ohio, but after the French and Indian War the tribe moved north to western New York State. This volume includes long accounts of the Revolutionary War in upstate New York, as well as incidents of frontier fights throughout the War of 1812, and Mrs. Jemison's life in the area around Buffalo from the Revolutionary period to 1823. Frederick Strecker, bibliographer of the Jemison account, notes that "considerable of the history of the settlers of western New York, has its source in the Jemison narrative." Jemison's story was recorded by Dr. James Seaver when Jemison was seventy-seven, and Seaver transcribed and arranged for the publication of her memoirs. Jemison lived with the Senecas until

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