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Joseph Brant and His World: 18th Century Mohawk Warrior and Statesman
Joseph Brant was a promising but undistinguished Mohawk warrior living in upper New York State. He became an innovative, influential leader and spokesperson for First Nations, whose support for Britain during the American Revolution led to their resettlement in Upper Canada along the Grand River. Their descendants live today on the large Six Nations Reserve alongside the Grand, south of Brantford in southwestern Ontario.This new, illustrated biography of Brant reflects recent research into the political, social and cultural background of his life. Author James Paxton rejects the interpretation of earlier biographers, who depicted Brant as a man who belonged neither to the "Indian" or the "white" world. Paxton shows that Brant was fully Mohawk, with Iroquoian values that stressed the interdependence of people. He stands as the product of a unique, multicultural 18th-century community in the Mohawk Valley, New York.Using skill and diplomacy and his dense network of relationships and alliances, Brant attempted to ensure the ongoing social, economic and political autonomy of the Six Nations in their new Canadian territory.The events of Brant's day impinge directly on our own. It would be hard to imagine the standoff at Caledonia had Brant not led the Six Nations to the Grand River area and then invited Loyalists to settle among them. Yet, in 1784, Mohawks and Loyalists envisioned a different sort of community, one bound by history, common interest and shared practices. At a time when First Nations' claims against the government promise to become more numerous and confrontational, this book encourages us to consider the inclusive and multicultural legacy of Joseph Brant.
Table of Contents
Contents
A Note on Terminology
1. Joseph Brant's World
2. Storm Clouds
3. The Whirlwind
4. Alliances
5. Isolation
Epilogue
Sites of Interest
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Visual Credits
Index
Table of Contents
Contents
A Note on Terminology
1. Joseph Brant's World
2. Storm Clouds
3. The Whirlwind
4. Alliances
5. Isolation
Epilogue
Sites of Interest
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Visual Credits
Index
96 pages, Paperback
First published October 22, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 25, 2013
So uplifting but sad to read about Native Americans who tried to ensure their people's survival in a British later American world. Brant worked with whoever was in power to empower the Six Nations people to be autonomous, not relying on handouts from the whites in order to survive. His plan , though good was thwarted at every step. His personal struggle continues today in Ontario.
September 8, 2023
A healthy four stars to this deceptively academic examination (96 jam-packed pages, with the format of a young adult book) not only of Joseph Brant's life, but the larger Indigenous and Settler contexts of pre-Canada and pre-US North America - what is now Ontario, Ohio, and New York State. Paxton goes into great detail about the personalities, dynamics of inter-Indigenous relationships and conflicts; and also the nature of the positive working relationships between Indigenous and Settler. Indeed, he explains, and justifiably so, that Brant did not "straddle two cultures" but rather lived within a blended and evolving society in which Indigenous and Whites intermarried, shared and adopted the others' cultural traits, and created a visionary society. Then, the American Revolution kind of upset the apple cart. I have one major issue with this work; there are no maps. It's especially annoying in his descriptions of events in the Mohawk and Susquehanna areas. His detailed descriptions of the "Blocks" along the Grand River lose effectiveness without maps to enhance his explanations of just what geographic territory was lost by the Six Nations during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His somewhat ephemeral epilogue, dealing with the early 21st century land standoff at Caledonia, Ontario along the Grand River loses effectiveness. Much history has happened in that area since the publication of the book. In summary, an enriching read if you have a working knowledge of North American History.
February 26, 2022
Am interesting about of Thayendanega (Joseph Brant), a Mohawk warrior who fought for the British during the American Revolution. After the war, he continuously advocated for the rights of the Six Nations in their settlement in Ontario, on the Grand River. The community of Brantford is named for him.
December 14, 2016
Consider the millions of people who lived in North America before Columbus “discovered” the continent. These were not savages or barbarians—they were human beings living in advanced societies.
The reader cannot doubt that Dr. Paxton respects the vibrant cultures and the cultural heritage of the North American aboriginal peoples who are among his professional interests. As an ethnohistorian, he is careful to consider the cultures of the past, and historical cultural change, in contexts that were a reality for the people who sustained those cultures.
Paxton is Associate Professor and chair of the History Department at Moravian College (Bethlehem, PA). The scope of his professional inquiry includes early America, antebellum U.S. history and the history of North America's First People. His passion is the cultures—their antecedents, dynamic interactions, and legacies—of the peoples who were Americans before Europeans arrived beginning in the 16th century. Paxton brings candid and eloquent enthusiasm to his work.
I talked with him about this book and his views about writing and understanding history. In part, he is motivated by concern that some historians allow "the cultural assumptions of the West" to shape their understanding and interpretation of the past. Referring to biographies of historical figures, Jamie clarified an element of the ethnohistorical approach to understanding and interpreting history: "We must read a biography in the context of the [subject's] environment—it's hard to judge what influenced the subject, we must contextualize the person." He cautioned that many biographers fall short of this standard ("the whole genre of biographies is problematic"). Many of the existing biographies and treatments of Joseph Brant "offer a flawed framework" of Brant's life and cultural milieu, emphasizing a popular view that the Mohawk leader was "a man of two worlds," that is, the respected Mohawk warrior in the Native American milieu and also the potent, Anglicized "Indian" representative who was a confidant of British colonial administrators and a transoceanic traveler who talked with King George III.
In Joseph Brant and His World, Paxton clarifies and expands his own assessment, and his commitment to contextual interpretation: "Brant was fully a Mohawk, but not a Mohawk chief; he was a New World creole, you can't disentangle the multiple cultures he lived in . . . in aboriginal culture, there was no tradition of coerced leadership, Brant was an orator rather than a statesman . . . his wife was an influential clan mother, he was as much channeling decisions as making decisions . . . Brant's connection to the British was important—in aboriginal culture, power was in alliances, independence was ludicrous." Brant was not a simple "cultural chameleon" who could function in distinct Mohawk and British cultures. He was a leader who experienced and helped shape the interaction and evolution of those cultures:
"Joseph Brant was a Mohawk. He embodied the broader changes Mohawks had found useful and necessary to live in a predominantly Anglo-American world. It says much about modern myopia when we fail to note that the Mohawks' German and Scots-Irish neighbors also found it useful and necessary to learn the Mohawk language and Haudenosaunee rituals. In important ways, the Mohawk and Grand River valleys were not racial frontiers but sites of cultural blending (p. 78)."
Joseph Brant and His World embraces the ethnohistorical commitment to explore and elaborate past cultures and cultural interactions from the point of view of the participants, respecting the milieux they sustained.
More at http://richardsubber.com/
The reader cannot doubt that Dr. Paxton respects the vibrant cultures and the cultural heritage of the North American aboriginal peoples who are among his professional interests. As an ethnohistorian, he is careful to consider the cultures of the past, and historical cultural change, in contexts that were a reality for the people who sustained those cultures.
Paxton is Associate Professor and chair of the History Department at Moravian College (Bethlehem, PA). The scope of his professional inquiry includes early America, antebellum U.S. history and the history of North America's First People. His passion is the cultures—their antecedents, dynamic interactions, and legacies—of the peoples who were Americans before Europeans arrived beginning in the 16th century. Paxton brings candid and eloquent enthusiasm to his work.
I talked with him about this book and his views about writing and understanding history. In part, he is motivated by concern that some historians allow "the cultural assumptions of the West" to shape their understanding and interpretation of the past. Referring to biographies of historical figures, Jamie clarified an element of the ethnohistorical approach to understanding and interpreting history: "We must read a biography in the context of the [subject's] environment—it's hard to judge what influenced the subject, we must contextualize the person." He cautioned that many biographers fall short of this standard ("the whole genre of biographies is problematic"). Many of the existing biographies and treatments of Joseph Brant "offer a flawed framework" of Brant's life and cultural milieu, emphasizing a popular view that the Mohawk leader was "a man of two worlds," that is, the respected Mohawk warrior in the Native American milieu and also the potent, Anglicized "Indian" representative who was a confidant of British colonial administrators and a transoceanic traveler who talked with King George III.
In Joseph Brant and His World, Paxton clarifies and expands his own assessment, and his commitment to contextual interpretation: "Brant was fully a Mohawk, but not a Mohawk chief; he was a New World creole, you can't disentangle the multiple cultures he lived in . . . in aboriginal culture, there was no tradition of coerced leadership, Brant was an orator rather than a statesman . . . his wife was an influential clan mother, he was as much channeling decisions as making decisions . . . Brant's connection to the British was important—in aboriginal culture, power was in alliances, independence was ludicrous." Brant was not a simple "cultural chameleon" who could function in distinct Mohawk and British cultures. He was a leader who experienced and helped shape the interaction and evolution of those cultures:
"Joseph Brant was a Mohawk. He embodied the broader changes Mohawks had found useful and necessary to live in a predominantly Anglo-American world. It says much about modern myopia when we fail to note that the Mohawks' German and Scots-Irish neighbors also found it useful and necessary to learn the Mohawk language and Haudenosaunee rituals. In important ways, the Mohawk and Grand River valleys were not racial frontiers but sites of cultural blending (p. 78)."
Joseph Brant and His World embraces the ethnohistorical commitment to explore and elaborate past cultures and cultural interactions from the point of view of the participants, respecting the milieux they sustained.
More at http://richardsubber.com/
October 30, 2011
Interesting synopsis of Brant's life and times. More of an overview of his life than an in depth study.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews