Catharine Brant
Born
Catharine Croghan, Ahdohwahgeseon

ca. 1759
Mohawk Valley, New York
DiedNovember 23, 1837
(aged about 78)
Brantford, Upper Canada
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1779; died 1807)​
ChildrenJacob Brant
John Brant
Catherine Brant
Margaret Brant
Mary Brant
Elizabeth Brant

Catharine Brant (c.1759–1837), also known as Ahdohwahgeseon, was a clan mother of the Mohawk nation. She was the third wife of Joseph Brant and an important leader among the Six Nations of the Grand River.

Family background

Catharine was the daughter of George Croghan,[1] a deputy agent in the British Indian Department. On her mother's side, Catharine came from a noble Mohawk family.[2] In the matrilineal society of the Haudenosaunee, this made Catharine a Yakoyaner (Clan Mother), and gave her the right to nominate the Tekarihogen, the most important civil chief of the Mohawk.[3]

Removal to Canada

During the American Revolutionary War, many Mohawks sought refuge at the British post of Niagara to escape U.S. destruction of Haudenosaunee villages.[4] It was at Niagara that Catharine married Joseph Brant sometime during the winter of 1779–1780. Following the British defeat in the war, Catharine and Joseph Brant relocated with many other Indigenous families to a new homeland on the Grand River in the Province of Quebec.[2]

In 1795, Joseph Brant received a grant of 700 acres at Burlington Beach, where he relocated with his family sometime around 1802.[5] Here the Brants lived in a mansion staffed by numerous slaves, many of whom had been taken as prisoners during the American Revolution. In all, Joseph Brant owned some 40 enslaved persons, making the Brant family one of the most substantial slaveholders in Canadian history.[6]

Joseph Brant died at his Burlington Bay home in 1807.[7]

Later life

After Joseph's death, Catharine returned to the Grand River where she continued to be an important leader. In 1828, she appointed her son John Brant to the position of Tekarihogen.[8] After John died in the cholera epidemic of 1832, Catharine nominated her grandson, Walter Kerr, who was the son of her daughter Elizabeth Brant and William Johnson Kerr.[9]

Catharine died on the Grand River in 1837. Until the end of her life, she was an influential leader among the Six Nations and a staunch advocate for the maintenance of their longstanding traditions in the midst of settler society.[10]

References

  1. ^ Gundersen, Joan R. (1996). To be Useful to the World: Women in Revolutionary America, 1740–1790. Twayne Publishers. p. 86. ISBN 0-8057-9916-8. OCLC 35305090.
  2. ^ a b "Catharine Brant; The Dictionary of Canadian Biography". Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  3. ^ Hill, Susan M. (2017). The Clay We Are Made Of: Haudenosaunee Land Tenure on the Grand River. Manitoba: University of Manitoba Press. p. 65, 69, 226-227. ISBN 9780887557170.
  4. ^ Paxton, James W. (2008). Joseph Brant and his world. Toronto: James Lormier & Company. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-55277-023-8.
  5. ^ "Joseph Brant; The Dictionary of Canadian Biography". Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  6. ^ Derreck, Tom (February–March 2003). "In Bondage". The Beaver. 83 (1): 14–19.
  7. ^ Bkila, John (February 27, 2017). "Historian says revisiting Joseph Brant's legacy important to Burlington and Ontario". Toronto. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
  8. ^ "John Brant; The Dictionary of Canadian Biography". Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  9. ^ "William Johnson Kerr; The Dictionary of Canadian Biography". Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  10. ^ Green G (1989). "Molly Brant, Catharine Brant and Their Daughters: A Study in Colonial Acculturation". Ontario History. 81 (3): 235–250.
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