2.7: Joseph Brant: Mohawk Loyalist of New York's Frontier

He sided with the British in the American Revolution, and successfully convinced many of his countrymen to do so.  The education he received at the hands of Eleazar Wheelock allowed him to understand colonial culture, while his upbringing as a Mohawk immersed him in a way of life little understood by colonial Americans.  His unique background brought him into contact with prominent movers and shakers on the frontier, and also led him down the path of fighting for King George III in the American Revolution.  His experiences also provide an insight into how Indigenous nations participated in, and were affected by, the American Revolution.  Today's episode of History: Beyond the Textbook focuses on Joseph Brant, the Mohawk Loyalist of New York's frontier.

Key People
Joseph Brant
Haudenosaunee
Ethan Allen
Guy Johnson
George Washington

Key Event
Battle of New York

The third season of History: Beyond the Textbook focuses on the stories of individuals who shaped "America's Crucial Years" of 1783-1790, and runs from October 8-December 24. Catch up on Season One, "America's Colonial Era," and Season Two, "America's Revolution," wherever you listen to your podcasts!

Feel free to contact us with feedback or questions by clicking the "Send Us a Text" link or email us at: hbttpodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

So much of the focus on the American Revolution is on the battles that occurred: makes sense, given that a war is composed of battles.  Some receive more attention than others due to their scope and scale, while others are remembered by what occurred after the battle.  We must also keep in mind that someone needs to push certain accounts to the forefront so that they are not only acknowledged, but given their rightful place in the historical record.  Take today’s subject: he fought for the British as a Loyalist, and was a Mohawk, two factors that would lead to his marginalized place in Revolutionary history.  Yet if you are not only presented directly to King George III, participate in the largest Atlantic crossing in history to date, and are viewed as such a nuisance that General Washington personally orders the destruction of your homelands, you must have done something significant that is worth a leading role in this history.  Today’s episode of History: Beyond the Textbook focuses on Joseph Brant, Mohawk Loyalist of the New York frontier.

Act I: New York, New York

Since most of today’s story takes place in New York state, we’ll begin with the first significant wartime action in this place: Britain’s invasion of New York City in summer and fall 1776.  Angered by the incredulity of the Americans at Bunker HIll, King George III decided to unleash the full weight and might of Britain’s military machine on these miscreants.  At this point, Britain’s armada was the largest in history to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and the numbers were staggering: 10,000 sailors manned 400 ships carrying an additional 32,000 soldiers in July, and 12,000 Hessians made their way to America the following month.  It was clear that New York City was to be their destination, so General Washington rode out in April to follow the orders of his Congress and defend the city.  However, New York was known to harbor extensive Loyalist sympathies, and its divided geography meant that mounting a successful defense was to be easier said than done. There were too many points of Entry to cover them all, and there were no walls due to the prior protection of the royal Navy; these points of Entry enabled New York City to become an economic Powerhouse in the long term, but left it vulnerable to attack in the short term. In addition to dealing with Superior British numbers and firepower, Washington had to contend with ill-disciplined troops whose love of Freedom was such that they weren't keen on following orders, and diseases would render 32% of his forces unfit to fight by September 1776. Due to a host of mistakes owing to faulty intelligence, the whole Affair ended up being a route that favored his Majesty's forces. It soon became clear that evacuation was the only viable option to preserve any hope of continuing the war. The bulk of the Continental Army was on Long island, and the operation was so secretive that the official orders were only communicated in whispers. The weather assisted in the efforts to cross the east river, as a dense fog covered the late stages of the retreat, and the wind assisted the boats in the direction of the destination of Manhattan Island. Washington was famously the last man out as the evacuation was completed, and 10,000 men would live to fight another day. The American evacuation of Manhattan would occur weeks later after another disastrous effort against the British, but the Army made it out, and New York City would remain in British hands for the rest of the war .

Act II: Brant’s rise

So, how does Britain’s conquest of New York City factor into the life of a Mohawk Loyalist whose name was once synonymous with fear and terror?  Joseph Brant, known as Tai-yen-da-nay-gah, or “two sticks of wood ground together,” was most likely born in spring 1743.  His mother was a member of the Wolf Clan, and this would be passed down to Joseph in the matrilineal society of the Haudenosaunee (listen to episode 1.7 on Chief Canaqueese for more background on the Haudenosaunee).  Brant lived in Canajoharie, a Mohawk village along the southern banks of the Mohawk River in upstate New York, and this village, like so many Indigenous villages, were still coming to terms with repeated exposure to diseases to which they had no immunity.  European conflict would arrive when Joseph was 12, for that’s when the devastating French and Indian War we learned about at the end of last season arrived.  He first served as a British ally at age 15, eventually participating in the siege of Montreal that would bring the North American THeater of the SEven YEars’ War to a close, even receiving an official medallion in honor of his service.  However, the defining moment in Brant’s early life began with a letter from Eleazer Wheelock, a minor player in the Great Awakening who concerned himself with the declining Indigenous population.  REverend Wheelock had opened up a school in Lebanon, Connecticut, which would morph into today’s Columbia, for the express purpose of educating Indigenous boys.  His first student was Samson Occum, a Mohegan who had already converted to CHristianity, and after four years, was ordained as a Presbyterian minister.  This success prompted the opening of Wheelock's school to train prospective native missionaries, which would eventually accept predominantly Colonial students and become Dartmouth college. Joseph was selected to attend the school, where he received an education in christianity, hebrew, latin, greek, and settled agriculture. He appeared to enjoy his time at the school given that he always returned from his visits home at the specified time, and like so many who attended a school, forced or otherwise, in which the subjects taught were outside the framework of the home culture, Joseph Brant was gaining an intricate knowledge of the two worlds in which he would spend his life. 

Given that the worlds of the Haudenosaunee and colonial Americans were intertwined for generations, word filtered onto Haudenosaunee lands about the troubles that were brewing in the east.  NEws of the Proclamation of 1763 was generally well-received, yet white settlers not only continued to stream westward, but would also use shady practices to acquire more Indigenous lands.  There were rumblings of discontent over the laws that were passed across the Atlantic Ocean, but they meant little to Brant’s Mohawk who were simply living their lives on their traditional lands.  A turning point arrived on the evening of July 11, 1774; by this time, the French and Indian War had come and gone, and Joseph was enjoying a fairly comfortable life due to his de facto benefactor, Sir WIlliam Johnson.  Brant would accompany Johnson to a conference involving the Odawa Pontiac at Fort Ontario, where he would remain for months as an official interpreter.  However, Sir Johnson’s death on the evening of July 11 was a game-changer; he had been SUperintendent of Indian Affairs, a post that will eventually pass to his nephew, Guy.  However, this death caused American Patriots to amplify their efforts to increase their influence in the area. To his end, Brant wanted to live his life and continue to advocate for his people, but it was clear that something was about to occur between British and Colonial American forces. Most indigenous leaders sought neutrality, implying that this was to be a war between two brothers that they would sit out.. but the American settlers began to choose sides, and the most militant Patriots made Guy Johnson their main target.  Patriot rumors began to spread that Guy Johnson was attempting to convince the Haudenosaunee to ally with the British, calling for his arrest and imprisonment. Having transferred his loyalty from Sir William to Guy, Joseph Brant wrote a letter advocating for Guy in an attempt to procure allies among the Oneida. With tensions mounting among and within the Settler and Indigenous populations, Joseph Brant was one of 90 natives who followed guy Johnson and over 100 white settlers to the presumed safety of Canada; though it wasn't necessarily a conscious choice at the time, Joseph Brant was casting his lot with the British in the impending American Revolution

Act III: Loyalist Brant

So Brant made the journey from “American” Mohawk lands to Fort Ontario, and eventually, Montreal, the same place he laid siege to 15 years before.  After a council that was supposedly attended by 1,700 natives, about 500 Indigenous soldiers and scouts, Brant included, were deployed in the province of Quebec for the remainder of 1775 to ensure that any potential American invasion was repelled. Their greatest Victory came in the capture of Ethan Allen, the Vermonter whose exploits with his Green Mountain Boys were already becoming legendary. At about the same time, a British officer delivered a commission to guy Johnson as temporary superintendent of Indian affairs... emphasis on temporary.  Johnson sought to plead his case to the powers-that-be in the mother country, while the Mohawk thought their specific concerns might be better addressed via a direct appeal to LOrd Dartmouth, COlonial Secretary (yes, the eventual namesake of Whitlock’s school).  A letter had conveniently just arrived from Lord Dartmouth in which he requested the military assistance of the NAtives and even promised to address the issues that had plagued them for so long, such as land loss.  Therefore, the Mohawk in Canada elated Joseph Brant to travel to England to speak on their behalf.  The group went to Quebec and boarded a ship on November 11, 1775, en route to England; 7 months after the first shots of the war were fired on the Lexington Green, and 5 months after the bloody battle of Bunker Hill, Joseph Brant was to cross the Atlantic Ocean as  loyalist and air the grievances of the Mohawk, and all Indigenous peoples, to powerful players in the English government.

It took about 40 days for the ship carrying Brant to make it to England, and to their surprise, Lord Dartmouth was no longer serving as Colonial secretary.  However Lord George Germain was 2 months into his new post and was more than eager to meet and enlist the help of the Mohawk who accompanied Guy Johnson. Johnson not only received the opportunity to advocate for his desired post, but Brant even received an audience with King George III.  THis February 26, 1776 meeting received scant documentation, but a local newspaper referred to Brant as a “chief” who offered his services to His Majesty, and “assured him of his fidelity on all occasions.”  YEars later, Joseph Brant would claim that “I have had the honor to be introduced to the King of England, a finer man whom I think it would be a truly difficult task to find.”  He certainly was in awe of, and won over by, the king, and his allegiance to the Crown was cemented when he met with Lord Germain two weeks later.  Brant placed his concerns directly to the Secretary, namely issues stemming from colonial encroachment on Mohawk land,  Germain’s response clearly gave Joseph Brant confidence that England would not only support the cause of the Mohawk, and by extension, the Haudonasaunee, but that England could deliver on these promises by defeating the Americans.  He had accomplished what he set out to accomplish when he sailed for the British Isles months earlier.  REcall that Joseph wasn’t even a formal leader at this point, but his association with the Johnson family had fast-tracked him into the upper-echelon of the Loyalist movement, and even allowed him to rub elbows with London’s elite.  With the commitments of Lord Germain, and his own promise to rally the Haudenosaunee to the British cause, Joseph Brant set sail for his return to North America in June 1776.

This return journey would end on July 29, 1776, when he made landfall on…Staten Island.  This brings our story back to Act I: the invasion of New York and the terrible events that befell the Continental Army.  This was certainly a much different landscape than when Joseph left for England, for in the interim, THomas Paine had published Common Sense, and the thirteen colonies had formally issued the Declaration of Independence.  Any attempt to bring Canada into the fold as a so-called “14th Colony” had failed, so the thirteen stood against the weight of the emerging British Empire.  As for the Haudenosaunee, we know that individual members of each nation took part up to this point as scouts and fighters, but at Albany in 1775, Haudenosaunee sachems met with rebel leaders and signed what amounted to a neutrality treaty.  THis is when the upcoming contest was said to be a quarrel between two “white brothers,” and the sachems claimed that they would “sit still and see you fight it out.”  The situation had very much changed by the time of Joseph's return to America; specifically, the Oneida were showing themselves to be the equivalent of allies of the continentals, along with the Tuscarora. Oneida actions are generally traced to the influence of Samuel Kirkland, a missionary who Joseph Brent met when he was a student at Whitlock's school. Additionally, independent Warriors fought for whomever they felt would provide the gifts they considered essential to their survival, and this generally meant fighting for the british. Thus a full break inHaudenosaunee neutrality was in the works when Brant participated in the British campaign in New York City in summer and fall of 1776. What made the break official? A meeting held the ensuing summer in Oswego saw Brandt openly challenge the policy of neutrality and called upon his people to defend “their father,” the king, against his disobedient children, the Americans. a consensus could not be reached, for the Oneida and Tuscarora would side with the Americans while the mohawk, cayuga, seneca, and Onondaga would side with the British.  The united front presented over the generations was gone, and the strong influence of Joseph Brant certainly played a role in leading to that break. 

Act IV: Wartime Brant

It’s not as though Joseph Brant started fighting after this break, or even waited until he returned from England.  We’ve seen that he had experience in combat prior to this time, including the French and Indian War.  But how did he participate in the rest of the war, and how representative are his experiences of Indigenous participation in the American Revolution?

Something that stands out about Brant’s wartime service is that news of his actions spread much faster than he could personally travel, and this news often inaccurately depicted his movements and accomplishments.  For instance, in May 1776, an engagement occurred near Montreal at a place called the Cedars in which a core group of Indigenous fighters captured a Continental Captain and sought to execute him.  BRant stepped in and sought this man’s release, forming a real friendship with him after the war.  Great story…the only problem is that Joseph Brant was across the ATlantic when this occurred.  Instances of mistaken identity in which BRant was miscredited with specific, often horrific, actions only exacerbated upon his return to America.  Upon his failure to formally convince all nations of the Haudenosaunee to rally to the British banner, he ended up in the village of Opuagua, an Oneida village, in spring 1777.  THis would essentially serve as his personal base of operations for the duration of the war, and it was in this village where he raised the British flag indicating that those who sympathized with the Crown would be welcomed here.  Up to 100 white Loyalists flocked to this symbol and would serve in an informal unit that bore the nickname “Brant’s Volunteers.”  Brant had already received a commission as a Captain by this point, and his reputation as a learned man and one who had successfully been presented to the King preceded him, and he would command his combined force of Indigenous and white fighters for the duration of the war.  One of their most consequential actions involved their journey to Oswego, where the council from Act III met and severed Haudenosaunee neutrality.  Word reached the council that the Patriot militia of Brant’s home county was mobilizing, so Brant and additional Loyalist forces moved out the next day to intercept them.  This resulted in hundreds of rebel dead, including the intense suffering of the Indigenous participants, and did more than anything else to directly involve the Haudenosaunee in the Revolution than any singular event.  The council would continue to meet at Onondaga in the battle’s aftermath, but the perception of the Haudenosaunee holding the balance of power in this region, as they had done since the late 1600’s, was just that: perception, but not reality.

Fall of 1777 brought the surprise defeat of General Burgoyne’s forces at the hands of American forces at Saratoga, followed by the news that the French had agreed to an alliance with America.  Joseph Brant commenced with his efforts on behalf of the British the following spring, beginning with an attack on a settlement at Cobleskill, but in the succeeding six weeks, any attack or theft in which an Indigenous fighter was involved was attributed to Joseph Brant.  This is when his legend really began to grow and when true fear as to his alleged whereabouts amplified.  For example, Brant was credited with leading what became known as the “Wyoming Massacre,” even earning the nickname “Monster Brant” in a poem decades later chronicling this event.  Unfortunately, Brant was not present when this occurred, simply adding to his reputation: he did continue to fight not only the rebel militia, but also his Oneida brethren, who he considered to be traitors.  These efforts culminated in the Cherry Valley Massacre in November 1778 in which the entire settlement was destroyed and many inhabitants were killed; Brant took part in this, but he was also reported to have attempted to save women and children caught in the crossfire.  Humanitarianism aside, the destruction wrought by Brant’s volunteers and other British units that included Haudenosaunee fighters incensed General Washington.  In 1779, he admitted that it was nearly impossible to defend against raids carried out by leaders such as Brant because the terrain was too spread out: the Americans needed to obliterate the will of the enemy to wage war.  THe first in a series of coordinated attacks occurred at Onondaga that April: three villages were completely destroyed, bringing a sad irony to the nickname “Town Destroyer” that had been bestowed upon Washington a quarter century before. Brant took a leading role in the eunsung retaliation, even turning his attention to the Oneida for their participation on the American side.  Attacking Oneida settlements and squaring off against the Americans consumed Brant right into 1781, and there was little indication that the decisive battle of the Revolution would occur that October in Virginia.  After Yorktown, Brant continued to seek allies among the Indigenous nations west of Detroit, and it took months for the news of Britain’;s ultimate defeat to reach the frontier.  Everyone remained on high alert until news of the Treaty of Paris arrived in fall 1783.  America’s Indigenous allies didn’t even merit a mention, so it said nothing of Loyalist nations like the Mohawk…their service to “their father” across the sea would go unnoticed, unacknowledged, and unrewarded.

This more or less encapsulates Indigenous participation in the American Revolution.  Some, like the Oneida and Tuscarora, sided with the Americans and received what could be described as “okay” treatment.  FOrm many like the more southern Cherokee, who would attack Patriot settlements early in the war, the post-war years brought retribution…usually in blood.  All experienced land loss to varying degrees, and the lack of any Indigenous representation at the Treaty of Paris negotiations foreshadowed how the future American government, and even the British government in Canada, would view land rights in post-war North America.  Following the war, Joseph BRant would continue to advocate for these rights for the remaining two decades of his life.  He would remain influential…until it was decided that he was too influential; like so many figures throughout history, he was sidelined in his later years as a new generation of eager leaders sought to take up his mantle.  His home was now in Canada, but he would travel to the United States from time to time for political reasons.  The decades following his death in 1807 led to a re-interpretation of his reputation, which had been one of brutality and unchecked ferocity during his lifetime.  Upon further examination, it was discovered that he had tried to save the women and children at Cherry Valley.  Official accounts of his so-called cruelty simply didn’t exist, validating what Loyalists had known for years: Joseph Brant did what had been considered necessary in warfare, but no more.  He understood that the best chance for his people to keep what was theirs was to side with the British, so his participation in the American Revolution, while at times personal, was initially pragmatic.  And his tireless advocacy of Mohawk rights, even when seemingly unwanted, echoes in his legacy today.

Next week, we’ll keep our focus in New York, but turn our attention to the “turning point” of the war: the battle of Saratoga, and its effects across the Atlantic Ocean.  We’ll focus on two individuals who share part of their first name, and even shared allegiances at the war’s outset, but ended very differently.  Our next episode of History: Beyond the Textbook  will spotlight the Dueling Ben’s: Benjamin Franklin, and Benedict Arnold, and the turning point of the American Revolution.