Molly Brant - WikiHQ

Molly Brant ( – April 16, 1796), also known as Mary Brant, Konwatsi'tsiaienni, and Degonwadonti, was a Mohawk leader in British New York and Upper Canada in the era of the American Revolution. Living in the Province of New York, she was the consort of Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, with whom she had eight children. Joseph Brant, who became a Mohawk leader and war chief, was her younger brother.

After Johnson's death in 1774, Brant and her children left Johnson Hall in Johnstown, New York, and returned to her native village of Canajoharie, further west on the Mohawk River. A Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War, she migrated to British Canada, where she served as an intermediary between British officials and the Iroquois. After the war, she settled in what is now Kingston, Ontario. In recognition of her service to the Crown, the British government gave Brant a pension and compensated her for her wartime losses, including a grant of land. When the British ceded their former colonial territory to the United States, most of the Iroquois nations were forced out of New York. A Six Nations Reserve was established in what is now Ontario.

Since 1994, Brant has been honored as a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada. She was long ignored or disparaged by historians of the United States, but scholarly interest in her increased in the late 20th century. She has sometimes been controversial, criticized for being pro-British at the expense of the Iroquois. Known to have been a devout Anglican, she is commemorated on April 16 in the calendar of the Anglican Church of Canada. No portraits of her are known to exist; an idealized likeness is featured on a statue in Kingston and on a Canadian stamp issued in 1986.

Early life

Little is known for certain about Molly Brant's early life. Named Mary, but commonly known as "Molly", she was born around 1736, possibly in the Mohawk village of Canajoharie, or perhaps further west in the Ohio Country. Her parents were Christian Mohawks. French Jesuit missionaries had converted many Mohawk to Catholicism in their early colonial years. By the mid-18th century, however, English influence had grown in New York. Christian Mohawk tended to realign as Anglicans. Brant may have been the child named Mary who was christened at the chapel at Fort Hunter, near the Lower Castle, another Mohawk village, on April 13, 1735. If so, her parents were named Margaret and Cannassware. Most historians believe that her father was named Peter. Joseph Brant, born in 1743, was Molly's brother or half-brother.

thumb|left|[[Joseph Brant, Molly's younger brother, in 1786]]

One of Molly's Mohawk names, perhaps her birth name, was Konwatsi'tsiaienni, which means "Someone Lends Her a Flower". Her other Mohawk name, given to her at adulthood in a customary mark of passage, was Degonwadonti, meaning "Two Against One". Her Mohawk names have been spelled in a variety of ways in historical records.

The Mohawk are one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League and occupied the most eastern territory of the confederacy. At the time of the American Revolutionary War, they lived primarily in the Mohawk River valley in what is now upstate New York, west of what developed as colonial Albany and Schenectady. At some point, either before or after her birth, Molly's family moved west to the Ohio Country, which the Iroquois had reserved as a hunting ground since the late 17th century.

After Molly's father died, her family returned to Canajoharie. On September 9, 1753, Molly's mother married Brant Kanagaradunkwa, a Mohawk sachem of the Turtle clan. Possibly to reinforce their connection to Brant Kanagaradunkwa, who was a prominent leader, Molly and Joseph took their stepfather's name as a surname, which was unusual for that time.

Molly Brant was raised in a Mohawk culture that had absorbed some influences from their Dutch and English trading partners during a period of extended contact. In Canajoharie, the Brants lived in a substantial colonial-style frame house and used many European household goods. The family attended the Church of England. Molly was fluent in Mohawk and English. It is not clear whether she was formally educated or whether she could read and write. There are several letters signed "Mary Brant", but these may have been dictated by Molly and written by someone else. A letter from 1782 is signed with "her mark", indicating that she may have been only semi-literate.

In 1754, Molly accompanied her stepfather and a delegation of Mohawk elders to Philadelphia, where the men were to discuss a fraudulent land sale with colonial leaders. The party traveled to Albany, where an English officer, Captain Staats Long Morris, nephew of Governor Lewis Morris of Pennsylvania, met and fell in love with Brant. She was then about nineteen years old and described as "pretty likely", meaning "good looking".

Consort of Sir William

thumb|[[Johnson Hall, Molly Brant's home from 1763 to 1774]]

When General Sir William Johnson, Superintendent for Northern Indian Affairs, visited Canajoharie, he always stayed at the house of his friend, Molly's stepfather Brant Kanagaradunkwa. Shortly after Johnson's first common-law wife, Catherine Weisenberg, died, Brant moved into Fort Johnson. Johnson and Molly Brant became intimate; in September 1759, she gave birth to his son, Peter Warren Johnson, named for Sir William's early patron and uncle, Admiral Sir Peter Warren. Brant lived with Johnson at Fort Johnson, and then his personal residence of Johnson Hall after 1763, when the British had defeated the French in the Seven Years' War. (It was known on the North American front as the French and Indian War. The Haudenosaunee had mostly allied with the British during this war.)

Brant was effectively Sir William's common-law wife or consort. Brant played a prominent role in the life of Fort Johnson, managing household purchases, from expensive china to sewing supplies. The couple had nine children together, eight of whom lived past infancy. They included the following:

Peter Warren Johnson (named after William Johnson's uncle), served in the 26th Regiment of Foot during the American Revolutionary War and was killed in 1777;
Six daughters, Elizabeth, Magdalene, Margaret, Mary, Susanna, and Ann (also known as Nancy). Elizabeth married Dr. Robert Kerr, a British physician and magistrate. Magdalene married John Ferguson, who was elected as a member of the Legislature of Upper Canada for Kingston. Ann (also known as Nancy) married a naval officer, Captain Hugh Early, for whom Earl Street in Kingston is named. Margaret married Captain George Farley of the 24th Regiment in Kingston.

Archaeology

In 1988, archaeological testing was conducted at the site of the former home of Molly Brant in Kingston to prepare for a construction project. Salvage excavations were carried out in 1989. Much of the original site of the Brant homestead had already been disturbed by industrial activities.

The area had long been the site of the Kiwanis Playing Field, and was not disturbed until Imperial Oil bought the property in 1938. At this time, the below-ground remains of the structures were likely removed. Excavations revealed the remains of a privy, which contained more than 5,000 artifacts of domestic and personal items from the 19th century.

Recognition in Kingston

On August 25, 1996, the City of Kingston proclaimed Molly Brant Commemoration Day. The Mohawk Nation - Bay of Quinte, the Corporation of the City of Kingston, the City of Kingston Historical Board, and the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada had agreed to commemorate her life with the creation of a bust representing Molly Brant, along with an historic monument at the front entrance of Rideaucrest Home on Rideau Street in Kingston. John Boxtel was commissioned to make the bust. The memorial sculpture was unveiled at Rideaucrest on Molly Brant Commemoration Day. The commemoration began with a service at St. George's Cathedral, a traditional Mohawk tobacco burning and a wreath-laying ceremony at St. Paul's Anglican Church, and a reception at Rideaucrest. The sculpture of Molly Brant was unveiled in the eastern courtyard.

The Molly Brant One Woman Opera, composed by Augusta Cecconi-Bates, was first performed at St. George's Cathedral in Kingston on April 25, 2003, under the aegis of the Cataraqui Archaeological Research Foundation. The 2003 production was sung by Kingston soprano Rhona Gale, with Carrie Wyatt, flute, and the composer at the piano. The opera has since been developed into a full four acts.

On June 17, 2015, Limestone District School Board trustees selected Molly Brant as the name for a new elementary public school located on Lyons Street on Queen Elizabeth Collegiate property.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

External links

"Molly Brant" , Cataraqui Archaeology Research Foundation
"Biography: Molly Brant", Canadian Museum of Civilization
Allan W Eckert, Wilderness Empire (1968) . This is an historical novel exploring the lives of Brant and Sir William Johnson. Eckert extracted information from multiple historical documents, and imagined details of events and dialogs.
"MOLLY / DEGONWADONTI: Her life in documents". This is a repository of written documents pertaining to Molly's life, maintained by Dr. Michael D. Elliot.