Molly Brant
Molly Brant was a notable figure in 18th-century North American history, known for her influential role among the Iroquois people and her complex relationship with British colonial powers. Born into a prominent Mohawk family in Canajoharie, her upbringing was shaped by both Mohawk and European (English/Dutch) influences. Brant married Sir William Johnson, a key British official, and despite societal norms that limited women's political roles, she actively engaged in politics and wielded significant influence within her community.
During the American Revolutionary War, Brant remained loyal to the British, working to persuade the Iroquois Confederacy to align with them, and she played a crucial role in informing British forces of impending American attacks. After the war, she continued to receive support from the British and lived in Kingston, Ontario, where she maintained her cultural identity by dressing in traditional Mohawk attire and speaking the Mohawk language. However, her legacy remains contentious; some view her as having betrayed her people by aligning with the British, particularly as they were marginalized in post-war treaties. Despite her contributions, Brant's influence waned in her later years, and she faced criticism from her community for her political choices. She passed away in 1796, leaving a complex legacy that reflects the struggles and dynamics of Indigenous leadership during a transformative period in North American history.
Subject Terms
Molly Brant
- Born: 1736
- Birthplace: Canajoharie, New York
- Died: April 16, 1796
- Place of death: Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Tribal affiliation: Mohawk
Significance: Brant was a leading Mohawk political figure during the time of the American Revolution. She was instrumental in convincing the Mohawks and the Iroquois Confederacy to side with the British
Little is known of Molly Brant’s early childhood, except that she lived with her family at the Mohawk village of Canajoharie and frequently traveled to the Ohio Valley for winter hunting trips. Brant’s childhood was one of mixed Mohawk and English/Dutch influences; she may have attended an Anglican mission school at Canajoharie and therefore learned how to read and write English, since her letters written in later years displayed excellent penmanship. Her family was prominent within Mohawk society; consequently, she was destined to become a matron (a female political role in traditional Iroquois culture). Her younger brother, Joseph Brant, was to become a prominent politician and war leader.
Brant’s stepfather was a close personal friend of Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the British colonial administration in North America from the 1740’s to the 1770’s. Brant married Johnson according to Mohawk marriage customs, probably in 1758, and although he was against female involvement in politics, Brant stubbornly refused to let her marriage prevent her from exercising her political power. In addition to bearing eight children with Johnson, Brant took advantage of the opportunities available at her new residence, Johnson Hall, which was also the headquarters of the British Indian Department. She used these opportunities, some of them in the form of access to information, some in the form of material goods, to increase her own political influence among the Iroquois people. After her husband’s death in 1774, she was said to be the heir of his influence among the Iroquois. Patriot revolutionary war politicians and military strategists feared this influence, since Brant was loyal to the British.
When hostilities broke out between the British and the Americans, Brant refused to leave her homeland. She aided the British cause by informing British rangers of an impending American attack on a New York village, as well as by working to convince the Mohawk tribe and the Iroquois Confederacy that their interests could best be served by siding with the British against the Americans. Most were reluctant to agree with her, although gradually they were forced by circumstances to make a decision. Most decided to ally with the British; both Molly Brant and her brother Joseph played large roles in this outcome.
Brant received a military pension from the British government following the American Revolution, and lived, courtesy of the British, in a substantial European-style house in Kingston, Ontario. She attended the Anglican church, which she had helped to establish, until her death in 1796. Despite Brant’s apparent assimilation, she dressed Mohawk-style throughout her life, and often insisted on speaking only Mohawk, even though she could speak English. Her legacy among the Mohawk people is controversial, however. She is viewed by some as having sold out her people by convincing them to fight on the British side in the American Revolution, after which they were forgotten at the treaty negotiations in 1783. She did protest this omission, and the treatment of Iroquois people by the British, on numerous occasions after 1783, but her influence among her people had declined by that time. Brant may not have been popular among her kinspeople after the Revolutionary War, since she chose not to live on one of the two Mohawk reserves set up in Upper Canada (Ontario) by the British government in the 1780’s.