Seaver, James E.:

$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.... A rather scarce early pocket-sized edition of this classic captivity narrative, printed by William Walker of Otley, West Yorkshire. Mary Jemison was captured by the Senecas at age twelve in 1758, the rest of her family perishing in the raid. 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 narrative, notes that "considerable of the history of the settlers of western New York, has its source in the Jemison narrative." The compiler and editor of this narrative, James Seaver, interviewed Jemison personally when she was seventy-seven years old. She continued to live with the Seneca people until her death at ninety, despite long being free to return if she wished. The narrative became as popular in Britain as it was in America, and this is one of three editions printed in Otley by William Walker. Walker was a printer best known for his prolific output of chap books, juvenile literature, books of tricks and legerdemain, and penny dreadfuls, so the unusually small physical size of this edition was likely rathe

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