5 h 32 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 5 h 32 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Taken from a Pennsylvania farm, Mary Jemison enters a world that challenges the meaning of home.
In 1758, during the French and Indian War, a raiding party of Shawnee and French takes teenage Mary Jemison from her family's farm. Two Seneca women adopt her as a sister. Her account follows her into Seneca family life, from the Ohio River toward the Genesee country.
This first-person narrative follows Mary Jemison through a frontier world marked by change. Through her memories, you encounter farming, councils, family ties, and war. The American Revolution divides the Six Nations, while settlement puts pressure on Seneca land. Behind these events lies a personal question: what makes a place home after captivity?
What you’ll discover
- A sister among strangers Follow Mary's adoption by two Seneca women and her entry into a different family life.
- The frontier from within Encounter Seneca farming, councils, and daily life through the memories of a woman who lives among them.
- A confederacy under strain See how the American Revolution divides the Six Nations and reaches into Mary's world.
- The question of home Explore the ties of family and belonging that make Mary's choices worth considering closely.
- Land under pressure Follow the pressures on Seneca territory as settlers and land companies enter western New York.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you love true stories of the American frontier, first-person memoir, Seneca and Iroquois history, or the lives of women who built homes on land few settlers had seen.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An old woman tells her story to a stranger
- A happy farm ends in one morning
- Adoption turns a captive into a sister
- Marriage, motherhood and the road to Genishau
- She chooses to stay and builds a family
- War reaches the Genesee flats
- Other lives pass through her house
- Three sons lost and a land sold
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Racconto della vita della signora Mary Jemison
by James E. Seaver · 1824
A young girl is taken from her Pennsylvania farm and adopted by two Seneca women, and she never goes back.
Challenging2–5 hours to readItaliano
Learn a language with challenging classicsSpagnoloFranceseTedescoItalianoGiapponesePortogheseIngleseHow we measure levels
Excellent
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In short
Picture a girl sent to a neighbor's farm in Pennsylvania in the spring of 1755. She comes home at dawn.
Racconto della vita della signora Mary Jemison in breve
- Tempo di lettura
- Circa 3 h 5 min2 h 25 min fast, 3 h 40 min slow
- Durata
- 44.000 parole
- Livello nella biblioteca
- Impegnativo long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- Prima pubblicazione
- 1824by James E. Seaver
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Quanto tempo ci vuole per leggere i classici · Aggiornato
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
An old woman tells her story to a stranger
The book begins with its making. In the fall of 1823, a publisher named Daniel W. Banister decided to preserve the story of the woman her neighbors called The White Woman. He hired James E. Seaver, who traveled to Castile, New York, where Mary Jemison walked four miles to meet him.
She came with Thomas Clute, a neighbor she trusted. Seaver says the story would not have come out without him, because she was careful about what she told white people she did not know. Within a day or two she relaxed, and she spoke with gentleness and simplicity.
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Hai guardato
Quale edizione fa per me
- 15-minute summary
- Le idee principali dell’intero libro in circa 15 minuti. Per un primo sguardo o per rinfrescare la memoria.
Dettagli
- First published
- 1824
- Language
- Italiano
- Reading time
- 3 h 35 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cita questa edizione
Seaver, James E. A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-narrative-of-the-life-of-mrs-mary-jemison.
Seaver, J. E. (2026). A narrative of the life of Mrs. Mary Jemison. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-narrative-of-the-life-of-mrs-mary-jemison (Original work published 1824)
Seaver, James E. A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-narrative-of-the-life-of-mrs-mary-jemison.
@book{seaver2026narrative,
author = {Seaver, James E.},
title = {A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-narrative-of-the-life-of-mrs-mary-jemison},
note = {First published 1824}
}
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What is A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison about?
It tells how a girl taken from her family's Pennsylvania farm in 1755 was adopted by the Seneca, married, raised children, lived through the Revolutionary War, won land on the Genesee River, and lived there into old age.
Is the Life of Mary Jemison a true story?
Yes. Seaver took notes from Mary Jemison herself in 1823 and published the account in 1824. He admits that an old woman's memory may blur dates, and a note in the appendix corrects one date.
Who was Dickewamis?
Dickewamis was the Seneca name given to Mary at her adoption. She bore this name throughout her remaining years, and the account gives its meaning as a beautiful girl or something pleasing and good.
The author
James E. Seaver
1787–1827 · American biographer
James E. Seaver was an American writer who lived from 1787 to 1827. He lived in western New York in the early nineteenth century. He wrote A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, which was first published in 1824, three years before his death.
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