A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison

"A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison" 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. Written by James Seaver, Mary's tale covers her 70-plus years living among Iroquois through many of the most vital years of the Iroquois Confederacy. Though some of the details in her story have been questioned, "A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison" is one of the most important and complete of any of the Indian captivity narratives to emerge from 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. Mary's account gives unequalled insight into the Seneca Indians and their ways including religion, food, hunting, warfare, culture, etc. Mary Jemison had many opportunities to leave the Indians and return to white civilization but chose not to do so. As a result, she witnessed some of the most amazing events in the history of her adopted people. Her tale, as told in "A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison," is truly an 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 the Iroquois way of life.