INDIAN CAPTIVITY]. JOHNSON, Sir WILLIAM, Colonial Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Autograph document signed ("Wm. Johnson"), countersigned (with her mark) by Margaret Williams, a captive of the Indians, n.p., 8 December 1756. 1 page, folio, 306 x 182 mm. (12 x 7 1/4 in.), verso docketed "Examination of Margaret Williams." A FIRST-HAND NARRATIVE OF AN ESCAPED INDIAN CAPTIVE, 1756 "Margaret Williams of the Forks of Delaware [near present-day Hancock, New York] was taken last Fall[,] was a Year with 24 Persons more, by a great Number of River Indians & Delawares living at Tiaoga & thereabouts. The Men & young Children they killed[.] They first brought her to Wywamuck, from thence to Tiaogo where she remained till last May. On their bringing them in to their Towns, [they] abused the Prisoners by beating them unmercifully, & starving them. She says the greatest part of the Delawares, & River Indians are moved to a new Town up the Cayuga Branch [the west fork of the Delaware] where they have above 200 English Prisoners. They have also sent severall of the Prisoners to Allegheny, & to the French. Last May she was permitted to go to Osteningo to work for her living, and was very kindly treated by them, & honestly paid for her Labour in Wampum, &c. From thence she made her escape by the means of one Peter Ninnicraft a Narragansett Indian who Pilotted her through the Woods to my House. The said Margaret say she often heard the Indians say & declare most solemnly they never would leave of[f] killing the English as long as there was an Englishman living on their Lands[;] that they were determined to drive them all off their Lands, naming Minisink and almost to the North River [the Hudson] East, also Bethlehem [Pennsylvania], and the Lands on a parallel line to it West. Which the English have cheated them out of. She says further that some of the Delawares were at the taking of Oswego [Fort Ontario, taken by the French in August 1756]....Sworn before me...." Original narratives of Indian captivities are very rare. Sir William Johnson (1715-1774) came from Ireland to the Mohawk Valley in 1738 and became a powerful frontier figure, mainly through his close contacts with the Iroquois and Mohawks. General Braddock granted him sole authority in dealing with the Six Nations. During the French and Indian War Johnson commanded British troops and American militia, defeating the French at Lake George, where he built Fort William Henry and subsequently capturing Niagara and Montreal. In 1768 Johnson presided over the council which drafted and signed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, by which the Indians relinquished claim to vast lands in New York, Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley.
INDIAN CAPTIVITY]. JOHNSON, Sir WILLIAM, Colonial Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Autograph document signed ("Wm. Johnson"), countersigned (with her mark) by Margaret Williams, a captive of the Indians, n.p., 8 December 1756. 1 page, folio, 306 x 182 mm. (12 x 7 1/4 in.), verso docketed "Examination of Margaret Williams." A FIRST-HAND NARRATIVE OF AN ESCAPED INDIAN CAPTIVE, 1756 "Margaret Williams of the Forks of Delaware [near present-day Hancock, New York] was taken last Fall[,] was a Year with 24 Persons more, by a great Number of River Indians & Delawares living at Tiaoga & thereabouts. The Men & young Children they killed[.] They first brought her to Wywamuck, from thence to Tiaogo where she remained till last May. On their bringing them in to their Towns, [they] abused the Prisoners by beating them unmercifully, & starving them. She says the greatest part of the Delawares, & River Indians are moved to a new Town up the Cayuga Branch [the west fork of the Delaware] where they have above 200 English Prisoners. They have also sent severall of the Prisoners to Allegheny, & to the French. Last May she was permitted to go to Osteningo to work for her living, and was very kindly treated by them, & honestly paid for her Labour in Wampum, &c. From thence she made her escape by the means of one Peter Ninnicraft a Narragansett Indian who Pilotted her through the Woods to my House. The said Margaret say she often heard the Indians say & declare most solemnly they never would leave of[f] killing the English as long as there was an Englishman living on their Lands[;] that they were determined to drive them all off their Lands, naming Minisink and almost to the North River [the Hudson] East, also Bethlehem [Pennsylvania], and the Lands on a parallel line to it West. Which the English have cheated them out of. She says further that some of the Delawares were at the taking of Oswego [Fort Ontario, taken by the French in August 1756]....Sworn before me...." Original narratives of Indian captivities are very rare. Sir William Johnson (1715-1774) came from Ireland to the Mohawk Valley in 1738 and became a powerful frontier figure, mainly through his close contacts with the Iroquois and Mohawks. General Braddock granted him sole authority in dealing with the Six Nations. During the French and Indian War Johnson commanded British troops and American militia, defeating the French at Lake George, where he built Fort William Henry and subsequently capturing Niagara and Montreal. In 1768 Johnson presided over the council which drafted and signed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, by which the Indians relinquished claim to vast lands in New York, Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley.
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