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Joseph Brant Biography

Joseph Brant Image

BRANT, JOSEPH (THAYENDANEGEA) (c.1742-1807). A celebrated Mohawk Indian chief. When very young he became a favorite of Sir William Johnson, who sent him to Dr. Eleazar Wheelock's school, at Lebanon, Conn., out of which later grew Dartmouth College. Here he obtained a fair education and joined the Episcopal church, of which he remained a member throughout life. For some time he was a missionary among the Mohawk Indians, and he translated into their language the Prayer Book and parts of the New Testament. He was early distinguished for his physical prowess and rendered valuable services to the English in both the French and Indian and the Pontiac wars. In 1774 he became the secretary of Guy Johnson, superintendent of Indian affairs, and throughout the Revolutionary War he served against the Americans, leading numerous sanguinary raids, participating in the Cherry Valley and Minisink massacres and taking an active part in the battle of Oriskany. He was not, however, present at the Wyoming massacre, as he is represented to have been in Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming; and he seems for the most part to have treated his captives with great humanity and to have steadfastly opposed and, wherever possible, prevented torture. After the war he used his influence to preserve peace between the various Indian tribes and the whites. In 1786 he visited England, where he was entertained by many persons of prominence and became acquainted with such men as Burke and Sheridan. With money collected on this trip he built the first Episcopal church erected in Upper Canada. John Fiske has said of Brant that he "was perhaps the greatest Indian of whom we have any knowledge," and that "certainly the history of the red men presents no more many-sided and interesting character." Consult: Stone, The Life of Joseph Brant-Thayendanegea, Including the Indian Wars of the American Revolution (new ed., Albany, 1885); Eggleston and Seelye, "Brant and Red Jacket" in Famous American Indians (New York, 1879); Macdonnell, "Brant and the Butlers" in the University Magazine, vol. vii (Montreal, 1908) .