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Summary: Fascinating History
Review: Book is fascinating reading, in terms of the history that's revealed in the words of Mary Jemison, but also in terms of James Seaver who gave us his own version of her story. This book is a layering of historical periods, and with the help of the editing, you can peer through and see not only the period of Mary Jemison's captivity, but also the prejudices of the period directly following. An interesting example of the simultaneous respect and loathing with which the early settlers viewed the native inhabitants.
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Summary: Firsthand account of Captive who became tribal Matriarch
Review: They say if you visit New York State you will find herdescendants; many native-americans have her last name. Taken captive; her parents killed - Mary becomes part of a native-american family. She married a Delaware (Lenape) warrior, with whom she was very content and has many children. This is a dramatic, true story, told in her own words. She is in her 80's, and reminisces about her unusual life.
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Summary: Fantastic Indian Captivity Narrative
Review: This book is an incredible account of the life and times of Mary Jemison, a white woman taken captive during the French and Indian War and adopted into the Seneca tribe of the Iroquois in western New York. This tale covers her more than 70 years living among them through many of the most vital years of the long history of the Iroquois Confederacy. In November 1823, when she was in her 80s, Mary Jemison, at the urging of many of the friendly local inhabitants, gave her amazing life story to James Seaver to publish for posterity. Though his truthfulness in some details of that account has often been called into question, this book is one of the most important and complete of any of the Indian captivity narratives to come out of the period between the French and Indian War and the War of 1812, which most historians mark as the end of the period of influence of the Eastern Woodland tribes. This account gives unequalled insight into the Seneca Indians and their ways including religion, food, hunting, warfare, culture, etc. Mary had many opportunities to leave the Indians and return to white civilization but chose not to do so and thus was witness to some of the most amazing events in the history of her adopted people. Her tale is important to not only historians and ethnologists, but to the general public itself as it is a truly amazing story of triumph and tragedy for a proud people struggling to survive in the face of overwhelming odds as a young United States continued to expand, forever extinguishing their way of life.
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