Life and Deeds of Joseph Brant - Essay Example

Perhaps no Freemason who ever lived in America has been so condemned by some and praised by others as Joseph Brant, the powerful and influential Mohawk chief who sided with the British during the American Revolutionary War. Born at Cuyahoga Ohio Country on the banks of the Cuyahoga River, near present-day Akron, Ohio, during the hunting season when Mohawks travelled to the area, Brant was originally named Thayendanegea, which has possibilities of meaning two wagers (sticks) bound together for strength, or "he who places two bets." The parents of Joseph Brant were Mohawks whose home was at Canajoharie on the Mohawk River in New York. Brant, however, was born on the banks of the Ohio River in 1742 while his parents were on a hunting excursion to that region.(1) His father was Nickus (or "Nicholas") of the Wolfe family, who, although not a chief, was a Mohawk of some standing in the tribe. His mother Margaret, or Owandah, the niece of Tiaogeara, a Caughnawaga sachem, took Joseph and his older sister Mary , alsoknown as Molly, to Canajoharie, on the Mohawk River in east-central New York, where she had lived before her family moved to the Ohio River. His mother remarried on 9 September 1753 in Fort Hunter (Church of England) a widower named Brant Canagaraduncka, who was a sachem of the tribe. Thus he got the name of Brant. Sir William Johnson, the British superintendent of the northern Indians of America, who was extremely popular with the tribes under his supervision, developed a liking for Brant when he was just in his youth. During his time with the Iroquois, Johnson became particularly close to the Mohawk tribes. He was also a Mason and a former Provincial Grand Master of the New York colony. In 1759 Johnson's wife, Catherine died and he then married his Indian mistress who happened to be Brant's sister, Molly in an Indian ceremony later that year. It was due largely to Johnsons relationship with Molly that Brant received the favor and protection of Sir William and through him the British government, which set Brant on the road to promotion. Brant and a number of young Mohawks were selected by Johnson to attend Moors Charity School for Indians at Lebanon, Connecticut- the school which was later to become Dartmouth College. Here he learned to speak and write English and was introduced to Western history and literature studies. He is the only one of those chosen known to have derived any benefit from the educational process standing at that time. He left school to serve under Sir William from 1755-1759 during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). After these participatons, he became Sir William's close companion and helped him run the Indian Department which was administered by the British out of Quebec. He was also assigned the work of an interpreter for an Anglican missionary and helped translate the prayer book and Gospel of Mark into the Mohawk language, which he did in a quite orderly fashion. About 1768 he married Christine, the daughter of an Oneida chief, whom he had met in school. He then settled with her on a farm near Canajoharie which he had inherited. While here, Brant assisted in revising the Mohawk prayer book and translating the Acts of the Apostles into the Mohawk language. He also joined the Anglican Church, was a regular communicant, and evinced a great desire to bring Christianity to his people. His wife died of tuberculosis about 1771, leaving him with a son and a daughter. In 1773, he married his wife's sister, Susannah, who died a few months afterward, also of tuberculosis. In 1780, he married Catherine Adonwentishon Croghan, the daughter of the prominent American colonist, Indian agent, fur trader, and New York-Pennsylvania-Ohio landowner/speculator George Croghan and a Mohawk mother, Catharine Tekarihoga. They had seven children: Joseph, Jacob, John, Margaret, Catherine(2), Mary and Elizabeth. Through her mother, Catharine Adonwentishon was head of the Turtle clan, the first in rank in the Mohawk Nation. Her birthright was to name the Tekarihoga, the principal sachem of the Mohawk nation. She named her brother, Henry; through Henry and Catharine, Joseph was able to wield considerable power. After Joseph and Henry's deaths, she then named her youngest son John, who died unmarried. Elizabeth, a daughter of his 3rd marriage, was married to William Johnson Kerr, grandson of Sir William Johnson and Molly Brant, and their child subsequently became Chief. United Empire Loyalists, Thayendanegea's surviving sons, Joseph, Jacob, and John fought in the War of 1812. . In 1774, Sir William Johnson died and was succeeded in his territories by his son Sir John Johnson, and as Superintendent of the Indian Department by his son-in-law, Col. Guy Johnson, both of whom were Masons. The Johnsons, together with Brant and the Tory leaders Col. John Butler and Col. Walter Butler (also both Masons) were to become leaders of the Loyalist resistance and terrorism in Northwest New York. The American Revolution began in 1775. In August, 1775, the Six Nations staged a big council fire near Albany , after news of Bunker Hill had made war seem imminent. After much debate, they decided that such a war was a private affair between the British and the colonists, and that they should stay out of it. Brant feared that the Indians would lose their lands if the colonists achieved independence. For this the Johnson's and Brant had to persuade the Indian tribes to join hands , so they used all their influence to engage the Indians to fight for the British cause, and ultimately succeeded in bringing four of these tribes, the Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas into an alliance with England -- the Oneidas and Tuscaroras ultimately sided with the Colonists. About the year 1776, Brant became the principal war chief of the confederacy of the Six Nations, due perhaps to the patronage of the Johnsons and the unusual circumstances in which he was placed. With this high office of leadership, he also received a Captains commission in the British army in charge of the Indian forces loyal to the Crown. Immediately after receiving this appointment, Brant made his first visit to England. By making this trip, he gained time, and was enabled to observe for himself the power and resources of the King and British government. He also went on to protest the policy of Guy Carleton, commander of the British forces in Canada, who refused to invite the Six Nations to join the war against the Americans, excepting of course the use of forty to fifty men as scouts. Brant was well received in England. His own education and his close association with educated men and his naturally easy and graceful manner facilitated his reception, and as he was an "Indian King" he was too valuable a person to be neglected. Thus, in London, Brant became a celebrity. The members of the British cabinet and the nobility fawned over him; gave him expensive presents; invited him to their great estates, and arranged to have his portrait painted by famous artists like Reynolds, Romney, and others. Among his particular friends was the English diarist Boswell. But all this glory and celebrity status were not just for the sake of showoff. In the due course of time he received assurances of participation and utilization of Indian Loyalists to a greater extent. These assurances were later made official rather than just as indicated by Carleton. Also during this trip Brant received the Masonic degrees in either Falcon Lodge or Hirams Cliftonian Lodge in London in April 1776. He has also the distinction of having his Masonic apron given to him from the hand of King George III.(3) When Brant returned from England , he was just in time to witness the Battle of Long Island in August 1776. He then departed for his homeland. But this journey was not without trouble. He had to resort to traveling by night to elude the Americans guarding the Hudson highlands and the area around Albany. At home his achievements were not minimal. A great accomplishment in this time is considered his convincing the Iroquois who had earlier chosen neutrality and had decide not to join the war, in favor of the british and turning them against the Americans. He told the young Iroquois braves of his trip to England and of the strength and friendship of the British. He denounced the Iroquois 1775 decision to remain neutral and called the Americans the enemy of all Indians. A tradition says that he promised each of his warriors an opportunity "to feast on a Bostonian and to drink his blood". The speech was received with wild enthusiasm and Brant departed on a tour of regional Iroquois villages to similarly stir up support for the British cause. Brant was certainly not dissuaded or criticized by the British or the Tories for his efforts. On the contrary he gained their respect for the use of Indians in the Revolutionary war.In fact, the intent of the British with respect to the use of Indians in the Revolutionary War was aptly expressed in the following poetic example of Gen. John Burgoyne, Deputy of the British forces in Canada, and taken from the Introduction to Burgoynes Orderly Book, page xxii: " I will let loose the dogs of hell, Ten thousand Indians, who shall yell And foam and tear, and grin and roar, And drench their moccasins in gore: To these Ill give full scope and play From Ticonderog to Florida..." In August 1777, Brant played a major role at the Battle of Oriskany in support of a major offensive led by General John Burgoyne. On August 6, 1777, the Tryon County militia marched to the relief of besieged Fort Stanwix. The wilderness road was the only means by which General Herkimer and his men could reach the fort other than by boat via the Mohawk River. The road dipped more than fifty feet (15 m) into a marshy ravine where the small Oriskany Creek, nearly three feet (1 m) wide, meandered along the bottom. Chief Joseph Brant, familiar with the terrain, selected this place for his ambush of the approaching relief column. While the King's Royal Yorkers waited behind a nearby rise, 400 natives, led by Brant, concealed themselves on both sides of the ravine. Into this trap General Herkimer's militiamen advanced, with Herkimer himself leading the column. Brant was not the ranking Iroquois war leader, as was sometimes represented, but after the failure of Burgoyne's campaign, Brant raised and commanded a combined force of about 300 Indians and 100 white Loyalists. He led them in a series of raids on American settlements in New York and Pennsylvania in 1777-1778. He led many other battles, either as leader of his Indian forces, or Brant's Volunteers, or together with British regulars, Butler's Rangers, or other Loyalist forces. Brant was made a captain in the British army. In July 1779, Brant defeated a rebel force at the Battle of Minisink. Although British forces were largely concentrated in Manhattan, Brant, the Mohawk chief and now a Colonel in the British army, was tasked with conducting a campaign of harassment in the outlying regions. In July of 1779, he received word that Kazimierz Pulaski's forces had moved into Pennsylvania, leaving much of the Delaware Valley undefended. Brant led his force of loyalists and Iroquois raiders through the valley, with the goal of seizing supplies and demoralizing the colonists.[4] The settlers were forced to flee to more populated areas, and Brant pursued them. On 20 July, he reached Peenpack, which he attacked immediately. His raid was a crushing success and, leaving the settlement in ruins, Brant and his force continued north along the Delaware River.[5] Later that day, riders from Peenpack reached the village of Goshen, telling of Brant's raid and the destruction of the town. A militia formed immediately, under the reluctant command of Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Tusten. Tusten was strongly opposed to pursuing the raiders, as he knew they would be no match for the British and Iroquois soldiers, and he suggested waiting for reinforcements from the Continental Army. However, the majority of the public and the militia underestimated the fighting ability of the Iroquois and demanded immediate retribution. Outvoted, Tusten agreed to set out the following morning. They met up with elements of the Fourth Orange County Regiment ordered from Warwick by George Washington and led by Colonel John Hathorn. Colonel Hathorn assumed command and marched for the Delaware with a force of about 120 minutemen. After the battle, Brant and his men forded the Delaware and continued on to their encampment at the Susquehanna River. Three weeks later, the Continental Army sent 3,000 troops to avenge Minisink and Goshen, destroying every Iroquois village in their path. Brant finally met his defeat in late August, at the Battle of Newtown. The Battle of Newtown (29 August 1779), was the only major battle of the Sullivan Expedition, an armed offensive led by General John Sullivan that was ordered by the Continental Congress to end the threat of the Iroquois who had sided with the British in the American Revolutionary War. The battle took place at the foot of a hill just outside of what is now Elmira, New York, along the Chemung River.Sullivan led the brigade of General Edward Hand, with that of General William Maxwell in reserve, against the Loyalists and Iroquois at this site. He ordered the brigade led by Colonel Matthias Ogden to flank the enemy along the Chemung River to the west, and those led by James Clinton and Enoch Poor to secure the hillside on the eastern flank.The battle ended with a sound defeat for the Iroquois (led by Brant) and Loyalists (led by Major John Butler and his son Walter Butler). Another incident for which Joseph Brant became infamous was the Wyoming Valley massacre, which it was widely believed he led, although he was not present at the battle. The Wyoming Valley battle and massacre was an encounter during the American Revolutionary War between American Patriots and Loyalists accompanied by Iroquois raiders that took place in Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, on July 3, 1778. More than three hundred Patriots were killed in a battle followed by a massacre, in which the Iroquois raiders hunted and killed fleeing Patriots before torturing to death the thirty to forty who had surrendered. Based at Fort Niagara, these raids were led by commanders such as Brant and Seneca chief Cornplanter. The Wyoming Valley battle occurred when Colonel John Butler, leading his rangers and a force of Cayugas and Senecas led by Cornplanter, made a surprise attack on the 360 armed Patriot defenders of Forty Fort beside the Susquehanna River (near present-day Wilkes-Barre). The Patriots were virtually annihilated and around 1,000 homes in the area were burned. After the battle, some of the victorious Loyalists and Iroquois began killing and torturing an unknown number of prisoners and fleeing settlers. All of the Patriots who had been captured while fighting were executed. Butler reported that 227 American scalps had been taken. He also insisted that no non-combatants had been killed, despite widespread accounts to the contrary. Survivors' accounts indicate that the moment of contact was followed by a sharp battle lasting about forty-five minutes. An order to reposition the Patriot line turned into a frantic rout when the inexperienced Patriot militia panicked. This ended the battle and triggered the Iroquois hunt for survivors. He also helped lead the attack in the Cherry Valley massacre. During the war, he was known as the Monster Brant and stories of his massacres and atrocities created a hatred of Indians that soured relations for 50 years. In later years historians have argued that he actually had been a force for restraint in the violence that characterized many of the actions in which he was involved; they have discovered times when he displayed his compassion and humanity, especially towards women, children, and non-combatants. The Cherry Valley massacre was an attack by British and Seneca Indian forces on a fort and village in eastern New York on November 11, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War. Although Captain Walter Butler (the son of Colonel John Butler) led two companies of Butler's Rangers along with about 300 Seneca, Brant was also present, but with his forces seriously reduced because of contention with Butler. The Senecas were angered over the burning of Tioga by forces under Colonel Thomas Hartley. The fort, actually a palisade around the village meeting house, could not be taken, but the town was destroyed. Sixteen of the defenders were killed, including garrison commander Ichabod Alden; Lt. Col. William Stacy was taken prisoner. Despite the efforts of Butler and Brant to stop it, more than thirty women and children and several Loyalist townspeople were killed and scalped. This, together with the massacre at Wyoming Valley, helped pave the way for the Sullivan Expedition, commissioned by commander-in-chief General George Washington and led by Major General John Sullivan, which destroyed over 40 Iroquois villages in their homelands of central and western New York. When The American general Sullivan, also a Freemason, ambushed the Indians and Loyalists at Newtown, New York in 1779, resulting in the flight of the Indians and a march across the state by Sullivan to the Genesee Valley, destroying the Indian villages and the power of the Indian confederacy. During this campaign, a certain Lt. Boyd, a young Freemason and scout for Sullivan, was ambushed and captured along with a soldier named Parker. In the words of John Salmon, who was a friend and fellow-soldier of Boyd, the incident continued as follows: "...When Lieut. Boyd found himself a prisoner, he solicited an interview with Brant, whom he well knew commanded the Indians. This chief, who was at that moment near, immediately presented himself, when Lieut. Boyd, by one of those appeals which are known only by those who have been initiated and instructed in certain mysteries, and which never fails to bring succour to a distressed brother, addressed him as the only source from which he could expect a respite from cruel punishment or death. The appeal was recognized, and Brant immediately, and in the strongest language, assured him that his life should be spared. "Lieut. Boyd and his fellow-prisoner Parker were immediately conducted by a party of Indians to the Indian village called Beards Town, Brant, their generous preserver, being called on service which required a few hours absence, left them in the care of the British Colonel Butler of the Rangerswho as soon as Brant had left them, Butler commenced an interrogation to obtain from the prisoners a statement of the number, situation, and intentions of the army under Gen. Sullivan...." (6) Another authority (7) continues: "...Butler ordered Boyd placed kneeling before him, with an Indian on each side, one holding his arms, and another with a tomahawk raised over his head. Butler then three times asked of Boyd information which his loyalty to his commander would not permit him to give. Boyd, he said, Life is sweet, you had better answer me. Duty forbids, was Boyds reply, I would not if my life depended upon the word. Boyd three times refused and Butler delivered him to the infuriated Indians who put him and Parker to death with terrible torture, he remaining faithful to the last to his trust, (and) forfeited his life rather than yield up his integrity." Thus it would seem that Brant, the "savage", was more charitable in his actions toward his patriot Brothers than were the British Tory Freemasons with whom he was in league. But we should not forget that Brant had received the education of a civilized man, had read the Scriptures, and professed to be a Christian and a Freemason, and he knew that the rapine and atrocities practiced by the Indians were unjustifiable. One can only wonder why Brant did not release Boyd and Parker after he had agreed to spare them, or why he did not have greater influence and control over his Indians to prevent the execution of these unfortunates at Butlers hands. In spite of their defeat by Sullivan, the Iroquois raids persisted until the end of the war and many homesteads had to be abandoned. About. He discouraged further Indian warfare, but kept his commission in the British army. He was awarded a tract of 675,000 acres on the Grand River in Ontario to which he led 1,843 Mohawk and other Indian Loyalists in 1784 where they settled and established the Grand River Reservation for the Mohawk. He became affiliated with Lodge No. 11 at the Mohawk village at Grand River of which he was the first Master (presiding officer); he later affiliated as well with Barton Lodge No.10 at Hamilton, Ontario. In years to come, the town of Brantford, Ontario, on the Grand River was to be named for him. Due to some legal difficulties with the title to the Reservation land, Brant had to visit England again in 1785, where he was again well received. At this time, he was able to obtain compensation for Mohawk losses in the U.S. War for Independence and received funds for the first Episcopal Church in Upper Canada, but failed to obtain firm title to the Reservation, whose legality remains in question even today (8). On being presented to the King, he declined to bend his knee or kiss his hand, saying," I bow to no man for I am considered a prince among my own people. But I will gladly shake your hand."(9) However, he added he would willingly kiss the hand of the Queen. Again, he sustained himself well in the best circles of the British metropolis, and became a friend and companion of the Prince of Wales. Another objective of his visit was to find out whether the Indians could rely on the support of Great Britain if a general war between the Indians and the United States should erupt. The British government declined comment on so delicate a matter, and referred him to the governor of Canada. Brant returned home to Canada in 1786. The United States government sought his aid in securing an end to the wars with the Indians in the North- west Territories newly ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris, and he went alone to Philadelphia in 1792 for a meeting with President Washington and his cabinet; and he claimed to have received 1000 guineas down payment, plus the offer of an ultimate reward of 20,000 pounds for arranging " a peace with the Ohio Indians". He assured the United States he would help, but upon his return home he changed his mind and actually worked to foment unrest and rebellion among the Ohio valley Indians against the Americans, traveling in the American West to promote an all-Indian confederacy to resist land cessions. Following this, he devoted the remainder of his life to the interests and moral improvement of his tribe, continuing his missionary work and translations of Bible passages into the Mohawk language. Brant constructed for himself a spacious dwelling in Canada, where he lived in handsome style with a host of slaves, as many as the aristocratic Virginians who would later rule the United States. His clothes were of the finest material, and in his luxurious home elaborate meals were served on crisp Irish linen. At home, he was a hospitable and convivial man, treating those who visited him kindly and courteously. His children were all well educated and his sons Joseph and Jacob were sent to Dartmouth. Unhappily, in 1795, his oldest son, Isaac, made a drunken assault on his father, who drew his dagger and inflicted a mortal wound. The case came before the Council of Sachems and Warriors, which exonerated Brant on the grounds of self-defense. Also, throughout his life, Brant maintained friendly relations with the English, and favored the introduction of agriculture and the useful arts among his tribe. (10) What more, then, can be said about this remarkable individual, who was at ease drinking tea from fragile china cups, but could also hurl a tomahawk with deadly accuracy We know that he was well educated; his compositions are highly respectable in point of thought and style, far beyond many of the farmers he had fought against. Perhaps it would have been impossible for Brant to have supported the American cause; he being too vain and too closely allied with the British Lords of the Mohawk valley to consider casting his lot with the humble farmers who spoke of freedom. For Brant, they had the stink of manure and earth about them; he was more familiar with buckled shoes and cologne. It is hard to imagine any other native American, though, who profited so greatly from the Revolutionary War. Brant died on November 24, 1807, at the age of nearly sixty-five years, at his own house on Grand River, Ontario, and was buried by the side of the Episcopal church he had built there. In 1850 Freemasons restored his tomb and placed an inscription on it, and a bronze statue of him was unveiled at Brantford in 1886. His last words, uttered to his adopted nephew, were: " Have pity on the poor Indians; if you can get any influence with the great, endeavor to do them all the good you can." (11) References : Stone, William L., Life of Chief Joseph Brant, Thayendanega, 1838. Abler, Thomas S. "Joseph Brant" in John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999 Coil, Henry W., Coils Masonic Encyclopedia, Macoy Publishing Co., New York, 1961. Conway, John. "Colonials took bloody beating at Battle of Minisink Col. John Hathorn's Official Report (1779). OReilly, G. H., Sketches of Rochester, 1838. Morse, Sidney, "Freemasonry in the American Revolution", Little Masonic Library Vol. III, Southern Publishers,Inc., Kingsport, TN, 1946, pp.294-296. Hines, Thomas, The Great League in Turmoil: A Look at the Iroquois of New York During the American Revolution , Old Dominion University Historical Review, 1996 Crary, Catherine (Editor), The Price of Loyalty, McGraw-Hill Co., New York, 1973. Horan, James D., The McKenny-Hall Portrait Gallery of American Indians, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 1972. Marshall, George L.,Jr., "Chief Joseph Brant", Knight Templar Magazine, Vol. XXIII, No. 11, November, 1977, pp.5-8 www.wikipedia.org Read More