Seaver, James E.:

$1,750 · 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 1755, WHEN ONLY ABOUT TWELVE YEARS OF AGE, AND HAS CONTINUED TO RESIDE AMONGST THEM TO THE PRESENT ... The rare second, and first British, edition of "one of the most authentic and interesting of captivity narratives," according to Howes and Streeter. Mary Jemison (Deh-he-wä-nis) (1743-1833) was captured by the Senecas in 1758 at the age of fifteen, the rest of her family having been massacred. She was initially taken from the area around Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania, to eastern Ohio, but after the French and Indian War, her adoptive tribe moved north to western New York state. The book provides long accounts of the Revolutionary War in upstate New York, incidents of later frontier conflicts through the War of 1812, as well as Mrs. Jemison's life in the area around Buffalo from the Revolutionary period to 1823. Frederick Strecker, the bibliographer of the Jemison narrative, notes that "considerable of the history of the settlers of western New York, has its source in the Jemison narrative." Jemison's account was recorded when she was seventy-seven years old by Dr. James Seaver, who transcribed and arranged for the publication of her memoirs. "Much of the content of the narrative resists stereotypical depictions of Indigenous peoples, offering insight into the lives of the Seneca Nation through Jemison's perspective as a sister, wife, mother, and respected member of the community....the Narrativ

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