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Eleazar Wheelock

Joseph Brant, Mohawk Leader, Goes to Dartmouth (Before It Was Dartmouth)

On Aug. 1, 1761, three teenaged Mohawk boys arrived on horseback at Moor’s Charity School in Lebanon (now Columbia), Conn. Two, Nickus and Senter, wore practically no clothes. The third, Joseph Brant, wore full Indian dress – probably a white tunic shirt, leggings, breechcloth and moccasins. All three were dirty from their trip from New York and covered with lice.

Their headmaster, Eleazar Wheelock, found them remarkably backward. Only Joseph spoke English, and just a little at that. The boys sat on the ground like children, and they cared for cleanliness as much as children. They had no concept of English furniture and utensils, and thought a wineglass as durable as a hand iron. “They are as unpolished & uncultivated within as without,” wrote Wheelock.

Joseph Brant by Charles Willson Peale

Lebanon was just a wide place in the road in 1761, and Moor’s Charity School just a couple of houses. But two years at the school gave Joseph Brant the tools he needed to move comfortably in elite European circles. What he learned in Lebanon would serve him well as a Mohawk leader navigating a place for his people in the changing transatlantic world.

In 1769, Moor’s Charity School removed to Hanover, N.H., and became Dartmouth College. Generations of uncouth boys went to Dartmouth (and the other Ivies, for that matter) for the same reason Joseph did. They sought the education, polish and social connections that would help them succeed in life.

Young Joseph Brant

Brant was born somewhere along the Cuyahoga River in Ohio in March 1743. His name was Thayendanegea, which in the Mohawk language means, “He places two bets together.”

He belonged to the Six Nations confederacy, also known as the Haudenosaunee people.

He had Iroquois Christian parents named Peter and Margaret Tehonwaghkwangearahkwa. His father died when he was young, and his mother moved with him and his sister Mary, or Molly, to Canajoharie, a Mohawk village on the Mohawk River in New York. Margaret gathered and sold the ginseng that grew there, for export to Europe and China.

Fort Johnson today

Canajoharie then was a frontier town, but a multicultural one where Mohawk families coexisted with German and British immigrants. As a boy, Joseph hunted and fished with English boys his own age. His family had ties to William Johnson, a wealthy Irishman and nephew of naval hero Peter Warren. Johnson built a mansion along the Mohawk River and served as Britain’s superintendent of Northern Indian Affairs.

William Johnson

When his older sister Molly became William Johnson’s common-law wife, Joseph moved in with them.

In 1758, 15-year-old Joseph followed Johnson into action during the French and Indian War. He served as a scout during the assault on Fort Carillon (renamed Ticonderoga) and watched the French rout the British. He joined Johnson in the Battle of Fort Niagara in 1759 and Jeffery Amherst‘s expedition to Montreal. The British gave Joseph a silver medal for his military service.

And so 18-year-oldJoseph Brant rode up to Moor’s Charity School as a decorated military veteran.

Moor’s Charity School

Seven years earlier, the Puritan minister Eleazar Wheelock had started Moor’s Charity School, a free school for Indian boys. He aimed to turn out Indian missionaries who would Christianize the American Indians. The Boston board of the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge paid for their schooling.

Eleazar Wheelock

Only a few Indian students lived at the school when Joseph arrived: a Mohegan, a Montauk and some Delawares. Some white boys, intent on going into missionary work, also attended the school. The sight of the Indians shocked one white boy.

“I was struck with horror at the sight of these wild indians, a sight of one I had never seen before,” he wrote. Some, like Joseph, were nearly grown men, others were his own age, he noted. “These last could not speak a word of english and still had on their indian costume, from my first sight at these indians it gave me such a shock that I determined that I never should be willing to spend my life with such people as they were.”

Upon the arrival of the three Mohawks, Wheelock immediately gave them each a pair of English pants and a shirt. He thought Joseph came from noble birth, because William Johnson – now a baronet known as Sir William – had gotten him the place at the school. So Wheelock gave Joseph a better shirts and a pair of pants with checks on them. Joseph liked those pants and took good care of them. Wheelock also gave each of the boys a book – Joseph’s cost more – and combs. Joseph got his own, but the others had to share one.

Curriculum

Wheelock at first found Joseph a bit sulky—not surprising that an 18-year-old Mohawk fresh from the battlefield would chafe at the strict Puritan regimen. But plentiful food improved Joseph’s mood. Lunch, for example, consisted of boiled meat, Indian pudding, bread, milk and sweet cakes.

The students slept and studied on the second floor of Wheelock’s home. They had to have wakened and dressed by six when Wheelock prayed over them on the first floor. Then breakfast and free time until 9:00.

In the schoolhouse next door, they learned reading, writing, English, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, along with civility and good manners. Then lunch, and then more lessons from 2 pm to 5 pm. They said prayers at the end of the school day and at sundown, then they studied until sleep time.

Wheelock liked Joseph, calling him a “considerate, modest and manly spirited youth.” He let Joseph, Sander and Nickus go home for a visit in November. Joseph returned to the school the next month, but Sander died and Nickus stayed behind to get married.

Progress

At Moor’s Charity School, Brant learned to speak English, to read and to write with a decipherable hand. He could read the New Testament and discuss Homer’s Odyssey. He also developed a preference for English clothes, which he wore except when posing or portraits.

Joseph Brant by Gilbert Stuart

“Brant’s ability to move between communities is key to his career,” wrote historian Elizabeth Hutchinson.

Wheelock wanted to send him to Princeton to study with one of his proteges, but he couldn’t get permission from Joseph’s family quickly enough. Sir William wanted to send him to Columbia (King’s College), but Pontiac’s Rebellion broke out. Joseph had to leave school to fight another war.

The Rest of the Story

He worked as a translator and for British officials, including his brother-in-law, Sir William Johnson. He also translated a catechism and the Gospel of Mark into Mohawk.

In 1775, Joseph Brant joined Sir William’s nephew, Guy Johnson, on a trip to London to seal his appointment as his uncle’s successor as superintendent of Indian affairs. Brant pledged Haudenosaunee support for the British during the American Revolution. In exchange, the British agreed to compensate the Iroquois for property taken, both in the past and future. He made a splash in London society and with King George III, who invited him to join the Masonic brotherhood. Though he usually wore English clothes, he wore Indian garb to have his portrait painted by the English portrait painter George Romney.

Joseph Brant by George Romney

He served as a captain in the British Army during the Revolution, and after the war emerged as an Indian leader. He negotiated for land for the Haudenosaunee along the Grand River in Ontario, and he helped form the Western Confederacy of Indian tribes.

For the rest of his life Joseph Brant worked to preserve and protect Six Nations control over Iroquois lands.

Conflicting Views

The Haudenosaunee people have conflicting views of his legacy. Some say he bargained away Indian land for his own purposes and helped destroy the traditional culture by espousing Christianity. His legacy is also tarnished by his ownership of black slaves.

But others say his negotiating ability gave his people sovereignty over their own land.

He died after a short illness in his home in Burlington, Ontario, on Nov. 24, 1807 at the age of 64. Legend has it that he said to his nephew while on his deathbed, “Have pity on the poor Indians; if you can get any influence with the great, endeavor to do them all the good you can.”

With thanks to Elizabeth Hutchinson in “The Dress of His Nation”: Romney’s Portrait of Joseph Brant in Winterthur Portfolio, Summer/Autumn 2011. And special thanks to Joseph Brant, 1743-1807: Man of Two Worlds By Isabel Thompson Kelsay. This story last updated in 2021.

Images: Fort Johnson By Webmasteratfort at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Matthiasb using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6840563.

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The Confessions of Moses Paul

These are the established facts about why Connecticut executed Moses Paul: On the night of December 7, 1771, Paul visited David Clark’s Tavern in Bethany, Conn. and had a drink. Moses Cook, a cobbler from Waterbury who was travelling through Bethany, was also at the tavern.

It was Saturday, and sale of alcohol was prohibited on the Sabbath (from sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday) – with the exception of travelers who could buy a drink at a tavern. Both Paul and Cook qualified as travelers, but the tavern was banned by law from serving Paul – as he was an American Indian. The law against serving Indians was often overlooked, however, and it was not unusual for a tavern to serve them.

In colonial America, the myth was widely believed that Indians were particularly susceptible to drunkenness and misbehaving badly when intoxicated. Among whites, society held the view that excessive drunkenness was a failing of an individual. Among Indians it was ascribed to the entire race.

Moses Paul Overserved

At some point in the evening of December 7, Mrs. Clark decided to stop serving Moses Paul. She believed he had consumed too much alcohol. What happened next is not clear.

The story that a colonial judge accepted was that Paul had left the tavern angry and threatened revenge. He found a flat iron and lay in wait outside. Moses Cook was the next man to leave the tavern, and Paul attacked him in revenge. He struck a blow so fierce that Cook instantly collapsed and “his brains spilled out.”

Paul was arrested. When Moses Clark died on Dec. 12, Paul was charged with murder. The court at New Haven found him guilty later in December, and he was sentenced to hang.

Executions were rare events, and they were a cause of particular interest to Colonial clergy. Once a man was condemned, he was urged to confess his crime and plan for his eventual execution. Confession, he was told, would help assure merciful treatment in the afterlife.

Rev. Samson Occom

Stereotype

Moses Paul’s case confirmed the fears that settlers had of the dangers of the drunken Indian. Four ministers from New Haven took an interest in Paul’s case and began visiting him. A sermon was expected at any execution, and in a case as famous as Paul’s, the sermon would undoubtedly be published.

But the ministers visiting Paul apparently were motivated by more than a desire for fame. They also (probably) arranged for him to have good legal representation. At his trial, Paul had stood silent and his defense offered little testimony to challenge the case against him.

But in an appeal to the Connecticut General Assembly, Paul told a different version of events.

Another Version

“[Paul] called for a Dram and being denied, soon got angry and the more so because the said House owed him Money,” argued his counsel. He admitted he spoke unadvisedly, and “behaved too unmannerly.” Then Moses Cook “reprimanded him in a most threatening imperious manner.”

With one end of a cart rope, Moses Cook tied his legs, and with the other beat and bruised him. Then he drew him out at the door and pitched him down a steep bank headlong. Moses Paul lay there for about a quarter of an hour until Moses Cook, with a whip in hand, came and told him to get up.

Calling him a drunken dog, Cook again whipped and beat him” in a most cruel barbarous manner.” Paul then got up, obtained leave, and went into the house to get the rest of his clothing. But “the said Cook following him into the house, there began again to Insult him and then and there further abused him and laying violent Hands upon him again thrust him out of doors and as he was putting him out at the door said to one Mr. Hurlbutt (who was Standing near with a large Cane in his hand), ‘Give me your cane and I’ll still the dog’.”

“Your petitioner then being greatly exasperated and the more so as he knew not but that he had as good a right to be there at the said house as the said Cook and also being in some measure Intoxicated with spirituous liquors, at that Instant in the heat of passion and expecting a sudden blow from the said Cook as he then saw him take the said cane out of the hands of the said Hurlbutt.

Self-defense

“[Paul] did then and there with a stick or club which he then saw lying in his way, and not with any Iron nor piece of Iron as was represented, strike the said Cook before ever the door was shut upon him, in a sudden heat of passion, with an Intent to hurt, and thereby to defend himself; but not with any intent mortally to wound; but this alas proved to be the fatal blow.”

Paul also claimed that the indictment against him was legally inadequate because it gave the wrong date for Cook’s death.

The General Assembly did not strike down Paul’s conviction, but it delayed his execution date to September of 1772. That gave Paul more time to prepare and an opportunity for an appeals court to take up the case.

Paul and his lawyers promised to bring forward witnesses, including Hezekiah Hurlbutt, to support his version of events at appeal since they were not heard at the original trial. He would make the case that he was guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter, not murder. And, Paul suggested that any idea that he had set an ambush outside the tavern was never in evidence and a pure prejudice of the court.

Failed Appeal

The Appeals Court declined to take up Moses Paul’s appeal leaving him to be executed in September of 1772.

By 1772, Rev. Samson Occom was something of a celebrity. Occom was a Mohegan Indian educated by Eleazar Wheelock, a Connecticut minister who had established a charitable school for Indians.

Eleazar Wheelock

Wheelock had sent Occom to England to raise funds for his charitable school, and Occom was wildly successful. He returned with ₤12,000. Wheelock, however, changed the focus of his school. He relocated to New Hampshire, where his school became Dartmouth College, and its central mission became educating white missionaries, not Indians.

Occom became disillusioned with his situation in New England and moved to Long Island where he was instrumental in helping Indians assimilate into the colonial culture.

The Sermon

With the support of New Haven clergy, Moses Paul reached out to Occom and asked him to preach the sermon at his execution. The two men had lengthy discussions, and ultimately Occom agreed to preach.

Occom was well aware of the bias against American Indians. He felt that Wheelock had taken advantage of him by promising to use his fundraising efforts to found a school for Indians, only to later change that. He also noted that he had never been paid as much as white ministers, despite promises that he would be.

In his sermon, Occom made note of the positions Indian’s held in society, at one point saying: “I speak plainly to you. You are the bone of my bone and the flesh of my flesh. You are an Indian, a despised creature, but you have despised yourself.”

Occom’s sermon pointed out that had Paul eschewed alcohol and led a more Godly life, he would not be facing execution.

Historians have never concluded whether Paul would have received different treatment were he not Indian. Paul had poor legal representation at his first trial, but that was not unique to his case. The rules governing who was entitled to an appeal based on new testimony were not firm. Still, the myth of the dangerous drunken Indian was well established, and his case played into that preconceived notion.

A Warning

For his part, Paul’s own remarks to the crowd at his execution were directed at the many Indians who attended. He, like Occom, warned them that drinking had been the source of his problems. He acknowledged that he had killed Cook and that it would not have happened had he not been drunk.

But Moses Paul never confirmed the case against him. In fact, to the end he said that he never struck Cook with an iron but instead with a club, which reflected his story of how the fight had broken out between he and Cook. Thousands of people attended Moses Paul’s execution, and Occom published the sermon he delivered.

Thanks to The Execution of Moses Paul: A Story of Crime and Contact in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut by Ava Chamberlain for many of the details of Moses Paul’s story. This story was updated in 2022.

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