Spy, Loyalist, and Diplomat

Molly Brant was an influential Mohawk woman in the American Revolution. Spy, loyalist, and diplomat, and a Clan Mother, Brant straddled two worlds. She kept her native heritage in her speech and dress throughout her entire life.

The Mohawks

The Mohawks are an indigenous people of North America who have lived in what is now North-Central and -Eastern New York for centuries. Their enemy, the Algonkians, gave the name Mohawk (meaning man-eater) to them. The Mohawk people call themselves Kanienkehaka, which means “people of the flint.”

The Mohawk was a matrilineal society. They passed property and responsibility from mother to daughter. The women controlled land, wealth, and strongly influenced policy issues. 

The Clan Mother, usually they passed down to the oldest sister or oldest daughter, is the leader of her clan and the nation. Responsible for the clan’s political, economic, and social stability, she selects their spokesman (Hoyane or Chief) and has the power to rebuke or remove a Chief as needed. She chooses the members of the tribal council. The Clan Mother also gives names to the children of the clan and makes certain both members of a marrying couple are not from the same clan.

The Kanien’keha:ka were involved in the fur trade, were known for their wealth, their military strength and diplomatic skills. 

They were one of the founding tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy (native name: Haudenosaunee Confederacy), a political union of six different Indian nations (the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora) in the northeast. The Confederacy had a central constitution and a common set of laws.

The Mohawk are also known for their alliance with Britain during the American Revolution.

Early Life

Molly Brant’s native name was Konwatsi’tsiaienni(also spelled Gonwatsijayenni), which means “someone lends her a flower.” Historians guesstimated her birth year to be in 1736. 

The daughter of a sachem (chief), she was probably born near Canajoharie, New York. That town is near the former site of Canajoharie, the Mohawk Upper Castle, a barricaded long house village on the south bank of the Mohawk river. 

Her mother was Margaret Sahetagearat Onagsakearat. Her father was Peter Tehonwaghkwangeraghkwa. Both of them were Mohawks of the Wolf clan. They had eight children, including Molly.

A Surname

Molly’s father died in 1745, at 38, leaving Molly’s family destitute. Her mother’s brief second marriage to a War Chief ended when he was killed in a raid. She married for the third time in September 1753. Most sources say she married Brant Kanagaradunka, a wealthy Mohawk sachem from the Turtle Clan. Molly and her brother, Jacob, used their stepfather’s name as their surname.

Education

We know little about Molly’s childhood through her teens. Brought up as an Anglican, she was likely educated in an English mission school. She spoke and wrote English well. 

Love and Politics

As a teenager in 1754, Molly accompanied a delegation of Mohawk elders to Philadelphia. This was probably part of her training to become a Clan Mother. The elders discussed fraudulent land transactions. 

About this time, Molly met Sir William Johnson, hero of Crown Point in the French and Indian War and superintendent of Indian affairs for the northern colonies. Mohawks respected Johnson for his honest dealing with them and his mastery of their language. Johnson was a successful colonial trader and one of the richest men in the colonies.

Marriage

Molly became Sir William’s common-law wife. Some claim there is no record of a marriage. Others claim Molly and Sir William were married in a traditional Mohawk ceremony. Molly was about 23 years old. He was 44. In public, she was called Sir William’s “housekeeper.”

Both Molly and Sir William gained something through their relationship. She managed his household, which included a cook, a gardener, a secretary, and several slaves. She and Sir William entertained constantly. They entertained many distinguished Native American, colonial guests, political, military, and business people.

Molly’s prestige among both settlers and her own people grew. Soon she was a Clan Mother, responsible for the welfare of her clan. Eventually, she became the leader of the group of Clan Mothers. 

The couple had at least nine children. Eight of their children, two sons and six daughters, survived. 

Loyalist

Sir William died at the outbreak of hostilities in July 1774. Molly relinquished control of Johnson’s estate to his eldest son and heir from  his previous marriage. She, her children, and four slaves moved back to Canajoharie and her own people.

She lived near her mother and her brother Joseph and ran a store that sold supplies to the villagers. And she became a vital political link between the British and Iroquois Confederacy. Molly provided food and ammunition to the Loyalists and hid them in her house. 

Spy

The American Revolution brought an end to the thousand year old Iroquois Confederacy. 

While most of the tribes, including the Mohawks, sided with King George III, the Oneida sided with the Patriots.

Molly spied on rebel activities from her home in Canahoharie. In October 1777, she warned the British of the approach of an American force. The Patriots discovered she’d sent the Loyalists information about their troop movements. Twice they came in the night to search her home.

The Oneida and the Patriots retaliated against Brant by pillaging Canajoharie. She and her children had to leave most of their belongings behind and fled to Onondaga, the Iroquois capital. 

Her people had lost many warriors and possessions. Many doubted the wisdom of fighting. Molly reminded them that the King deserved their loyalty because he had tried to protect their land.

Clan Mother

In late 1777, Colonel Butler of Fort Niagara needed Molly’s help. Thousands of homeless Iroquois had been arriving at the fort. So Molly and her children moved to Niagara. There she lobbied for the people’s welfare and encouraged the Iroquois to continue to support the King.

In 1778, the British built a house for Molly on Carleton Island. After that, they expected her to use her influence over the Mohawk warriors. She used the colonial administration to increase her own political power and to promote the interests of her people. The colonial administration used her as an instrument of political control. 

Throughout the war, she steadied the Mohawk warriors, boost their morale, and strengthen their loyalty to the King.

The winter of 1779-1780 was one of the most severe on record. But the war raged on. Native, loyalists, and patriot settlements were attacked and burned.

Thousands of Iroquois, starving and ill, fled to Fort Niagara.
 As an intermediary between the British and the Iroquois, Molly attempted to improve the living conditions of her people as well as promote peace and cooperation. The King, after all, had promised to return their lands when the war ended.

Broken Promises

After the war, the British reneged on their promise to address native grievances in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The British still saw Molly as an indispensable native leader. 

The Iroquois, who had lost their ancestral homeland, received Canadian land grants and financial compensation. But to her people, Molly was a pariah.

A New Town

In 1783, Molly decided that the site of the old French fort at Cataraqui, near Kingston, Ontario, would be a good place for herself and the other Loyalists to settle.

The Canadian government built a large house for her. She also received 100 pounds per year and a supplement of twelve hundred pounds for her property losses in the war. The United States offered her compensation if she would return to the Mohawk valley, but she refused.

She lost more than property in the war. Her eldest child, Peter, died in the fighting.

She and the other loyalists refugees founded the town of Kingston. She lived there for the rest of her life. 

Molly died in 1796 at 60. The exact site of her burial is unknown.

Legacy

Five of Molly’s daughters married Canadians. Her surviving son, George, married an Iroquois woman and became a farmer and teacher. Her daughters married prominent white men.

Despite Molly Brant having been one of the most prominent Indigenous women in North American history, there are no photographs of Molly at any age. This may a reflection of the societal attitudes of that period that saw her, an indigenous person, as inferior.

A plaque in her memory stands near St George’s Cathedral; another is on an interior wall of the cathedral.

Since 1994, Canada has honored Molly as a Person of National Historic Significance. April 16 is the day the Anglican Church of Canada commemorates her.

The Johnson Hall State Historic Site in New York includes a presentation and interpretation of her public and private roles. 

On August 25, 1996, the City of Kingston celebrated the Molly Brant Commemoration Day with a service at St. George’s Cathedra, a traditional Mohawk tobacco burning, a wreath-laying, a reception, and the unveiling of a memorial sculpture.

An opera composed by Augusta Cecconi-Bates in 2003, “The Molly Brant One Woman Opera,” is now four acts. 

In 2015, Ontario named an elementary school after her. 

Conclusion

Straddling the cultures and languages of two worlds is difficult in any day and age. Molly Brant was poised and persuasive, an extraordinary woman. She persuaded most of the Iroquois nations to fight for the King and used her influence to improve their living conditions. A Mohawk Clan Mother, spy, Loyalist, and diplomat, Molly Brant, a woman of history, deserves to be remembered.

Please Note:

Few written records of Molly Brant’s life and deeds exist. Scholars often disagree about dates and lineage and the status of Clan Mother in Molly’s history.

This post originally published on 3/9/20

References:

Britannica

National Park Service

Orrin’s Website: The American Indian Facts for Kids pages

Smithsonian: National Museum of the American Indian 

Wikipedia, Canajoharie 

Wikipedia, Molly_Brant

Image Credits:

Top Image: © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 per Wikimedia Commons

Second Image: R. A. Nonenmacher / Public domain

Third Image: Internet Archive Book Images / No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons 

Last Image: Internet Archive Book Images / No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons