Artifact 3: Tench Tilghman's impression of Molly Brant.

This journal entry, one of the few documents that speak about Molly directly, details Tench Tilghman’s impressions of Molly. Tilghman describes her as unwell after Sir William Johnson’s death, but still presents herself as she would in any professional setting. Tilghman went on to write that her influence among the Indians would challenge a meeting in Albany with Guy Johnson, who fled in fear of being captured as a loyalist.

Molly Brant grew up in a household filled with leaders and her persuasiveness helped Johnson establish British relations with the Iroquois. Johnson’s death in 1774 affected her, but Molly remained assertive, inserting herself among the men of power within the Iroquois Confederacy with a confidence by which many authoritative figures were challenged.

Molly Brant travelled between the U.S.A. and Canada. Her contributions to Canada include being one of the founding charters in 1792, and the only woman listed as such, of an Anglican Church in Kingston, Ontario. She passed information to British troops, preventing Canada from encroaching American rule during the American Revolutionary War. Molly stayed in Kingston after the War, where they celebrate her efforts that essentially helped save Canada.

Bibliography:

Grumet, Robert Steven. 1996. Molly Brant: Her Domestic and Political Roles in Eighteenth Century New York. In Northeastern Indian Lives, 1632-1816. Native Americans of the Northeast. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. EBSCO First Nations Collections.