14th of Eleventh Month, 1764
This morning Papa told Thomas and me that it would be better if we did not share our stories in Meeting or at school. He said that the two worlds of English and Indian are still far apart, and only a few people would understand our journey. He added that Mother was very upset by what we had told her. He asked us to be gentle with her.
15th of Eleventh Month, 1764
When Molly and Lucy visited again today, they asked how I was able to bear my life with the filthy Indians.
I could not answer them.
Later, after they had left, I offered to help Mother with supper, but she said she did not need my help. I tried to read, but I grew desperately lonely, knowing that Mother is repulsed by our experience.
So I went out to the fields and looked at the sky, and I begged God to take my life. I will never belong here again. I have no home. I lay on the ground to be close to the scent of the earth and lost all sense of time, until Papa found me.
I calmly confessed to him that I did not want to live for I was desperately lonely and could not bear Mother’s wrath against me.
He took my face between his hands and said, “Thee learned to open thy heart to those who are different from thee, Caty. That is why thee stood in the light. But such learning is very lonely and cannot be taught to others, for thee had to suffer greatly to uncover such truth.”
When he said this, I broke for the first time since the attack on the Lenape camp and collapsed in a terrible grief. Papa held me tightly as tears flooded forth and my tongue was released. I told him that my friends had no outward sign of wealth, but their lives outshone those of many Christians, and that Snow Hunter was not unlike him or me — and White Owl and Little Cloud and Little One, that we were all part of the same family.
Then I wept with loud cries against his shoulder for the terrible sorrow of it all.
He held me tighter and said, “Thee must pray for thy red friends, Caty. For the same loving Spirit who loves thee loves them, though they know Him by another name. Thee must know that we are all always in God’s embrace, whether we are alive or have departed this earth.”
16th of Eleventh Month, 1764
All day Thomas and I helped Mother with chores and tended to Baby Will, who walks easily on his own now and pries into everything. I was more cheerful with Mother, and she seemed relieved. Perhaps it is I who will have to move closer to her and reassure her that all is well.
I feel better since talking to Papa, but I do not know if I shall ever be able to return to school.
17th of Eleventh Month, 1764
Rain taps against the roof. Thomas sleeps, exhausted from helping Papa and Cousin Ezra chop wood all day.
As usual I cannot sleep. I am still melancholy. How will I live without ever knowing the fate of White Owl, Little Cloud, Little One, and Snow Hunter?
18th of Eleventh Month, 1764
Weather raw and cool. Mother and I quilted all afternoon, then cleaned iron candlesticks. We spoke very little, still miles apart in our thoughts and feelings. But at least we were together, and several times she smiled lovingly at me. Tonight I felt her warm gaze upon me as I gave Thomas a reading lesson before the fire.
Mother and Papa both laughed with relief when Thomas asked if he could learn to divide the long numbers. I imagine Mother perceives that Thomas is adapting back to his life, and will soon forget his “savage” experience.
I fear it is very different for me.
20th of Eleventh Month, 1764
Thomas returned to school today, but I was disinclined to do the same. Mother kindly allows me to stay home.
21st of Eleventh Month, 1764
Today at Meeting, a Friend quoted William Penn: “They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it.”
I do not imagine that William Penn was talking about the sort of love I have known, but ’tis strange that when I left Meeting, I saw an eagle flying high above the trees. I whispered, “I will always love thee, Snow Hunter.”
Somehow I believe I was heard, for the great bird circled twice, then dipped gracefully down toward me before he glided away into the infinite.
A knowingness flooded my heart, and I felt that someday, somewhere on this earth or beyond it, we will meet again.
Wanishi.
Epilogue
Catharine Carey Logan did not return to school that year. She felt too estranged from her friends after her life among the Lenape. The following year, her mother died of yellow fever, and she was thenceforth compelled to stay home and care for Eliza and Baby Will. Her father, however, educated her himself. Once the younger children were grown, she became a teacher and taught in Philadelphia.
Catharine never married. She taught impoverished children throughout the period of the Revolutionary War. After the war, she devoted herself to the abolition of slavery and traveled throughout the South, urging southern Quakers to give up their slaves. Her experiences with the Lenape had taught her that all people deserve equal respect and treatment.
Thomas Logan was likewise profoundly affected by his experiences with the Lenape Indians. After the Revolutionary War, he helped represent Indian interests when the Six Nations made treaties with the United States government. He also helped establish centers where farming and other skills were taught to eastern Indians who had been forced to live on reservations.
For many years, Thomas inquired after the small Lenape band with whom he and his sister had lived—he calculated that they must have had their camp on the northern branch of the Susquehanna River. No one seemed to know the fate of White Owl, Little Cloud, Little One, and their people. Moravian missionaries assured him, though, that if they had survived the attack of the soldiers, they most likely had migrated west over the Appalachian Mountains to join many of their people who at that time lived peacefully in the Ohio Valley.
From the Moravians, Thomas also gathered information about a boy who had lived near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had been captured by the Lenape in 1756. The boy’s name was John McCloud. As he was nine years old at the time of his capture, he would have been seventeen in 1764, the approximate age of Snow Hunter. According to various sources, John McCloud was killed by soldiers in the fall of 1764.
Life in America
in 1763
Historical Note
Many of the early settlers of America were members of newly formed religious groups from Europe who had come seeking a place to live and to practice their faith freely. The Quakers were a Protestant group that had formed in England in the 1600s. Though rooted in Christianity, the early Quakers taught that all people in the world, regardless of their religion, were illuminated by an inner light. They believed that this light was part of God and it would help guide a person to do what was right.
The early Quakers met for worship in meetinghouses or in someone’s home. Their form of worship was very simple. There was no singing, no sermon or communion. The “Friends,” as Quakers call themselves, sat in silence. During the silence, any Friend was allowed to share a prayer or message with the group.
During the 1650s and the 1660s, the first Quakers who came to America from England were persecuted by the Puritans. Over time, they gained acceptance, and in 1682, an aristocratic English Quaker named William Penn was given a tract of land by King Charles II. The land became the colony of Pennsylvania (named after Penn by the king). Penn declared it a “Holy Experiment,” as he wanted its government to rule justly, according to Quaker truths. He named its major city “Philadelphia” which means the “City of Brotherly Love.”
When Penn came to Pennsylvania, the Lenni Lenape (who were called the Delaware Indians by the early settlers) were an Indian tribe who held their ancestral lands in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.
Penn and the early Quakers insisted that the Lenape Indians of Pennsylvania be treated fairly. Thus, for the next fifty years, there was peace between white settlers and the Lenape. One of Penn’s treaties, however, did not serve the I
ndians well. He had made an agreement to buy land from them west of the Delaware River, the size of which was to be determined as the distance a man could walk in a day and a half. Both sides understood this to mean about thirty miles. However, it was not until 1737 that the “Walking Purchase” was carried out by Penn’s descendants, who had no concern for the welfare of the Indians. They cut a road through the wilderness and hired professional runners to “walk” at a run. Thus, the area covered stretched to sixty miles instead of thirty, and included virtually all of the remaining eastern territory of the Indians.
Quakers were reluctant to enforce the “Walking Purchase,” for they loathed robbing the Indians of their ancestral territory. Non-Quakers, however, demanded that the treaty be honored. Thus, the “Walking Purchase” (or the “Extravagant Day’s Walk,” as it was sometimes called) contributed to the disintegration of harmony between settlers and Indians.
Relations went from bad to worse. In the 1750s, when the French and English fought over the land in the Ohio Valley, they both treated the Indians unfairly. English and French traders bribed and cheated them, stole their lands, and insulted their leaders. The Lenape finally chose to side with the French as they were angry with the English for building forts on their land. Further, the French had convinced them that the English were planning to make them slaves.
In an effort to end the French and Indian War, the English eventually met with the Indians in a series of treaty meetings and promised protection and compensation for ancestral lands.
However, when the war ended in the early 1760s, the English failed to keep their promises. In despair, the Indians tried to capture English posts. Later, when they attacked families of the Scotch-Irish frontiersmen, all Quaker pleas for a peaceful relationship with them went unheeded. In fact, other settlers became angry at the Quakers for trying to protect the Indians.
Finally, in December of 1763, a vigilante mob called the “Paxton boys” decided to teach the Indians a lesson. They rounded up and brutally murdered members of the peaceful Conestoga tribe of Lancaster County.
For the next year, the Lenape and other eastern tribes fought with the settlers until, in the early fall of 1764, English troops destroyed most of the remaining Lenape villages in Pennsylvania. At that time, the Indians were forced to return their captives taken during and after the French and Indian War. A number of captives, however, had formed meaningful bonds with the Indians and did not want to return.
After they were defeated, many of the surviving Lenape moved west into Ohio, then later into Indiana, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
By the end of the eighteenth century, Pennsylvania Quakers were little involved with government matters. Still, eastern Indian tribes considered them friends and asked them to represent their interests when they signed treaties with the new United States. Those Quakers who tried to protect the rights of the Indians appeared to have believed in the philosophy expressed by William Penn a century earlier: “Force subdues but love gains.”
The pious Quakers adhered to strict rules within their society, even in matters of fashion. Women wore long, simple high-necked dresses with plain bonnets. Men wore short, fitted pants known as breeches, jackets with little adornment, and the traditional flat-brimmed hat.
Lenape women and girls dressed in fringed buckskin skirts, or tepethuns, made from animal hides. Lenape men and boys wore long pieces of deerskin folded over a belt known as a sàkutàkàn, or breechcloth. The breechcloth was worn alone in warm weather and accompanied by animal skin pants during the winter. Both men and women decorated their clothing with feathers, shells, and the quills of porcupines, and wore moccasins on their feet.
Many Quakers lived in the lush countryside of the Delaware Valley and made homes on farms similar to the one pictured here. Every day, except Sunday, was filled with chores. Women and girls cooked, washed, and sewed, while men and boys planted and harvested crops and tended the farm animals.
Many Quaker children were unable to go to school every day because lessons were often interrupted by seasonal harvesting and demanding household chores. This drawing depicts a young girl studying geography in a Quaker Friends school. Quaker Friends schools still exist today.
The Friends meetinghouse provided a religious sanctuary where the Quakers could worship together. Their reverent society emphasized the importance of a direct relationship with God, thriftiness, modest social behavior, and unity.
William Penn, a leader of the Pennsylvania Quakers, met with the early colonists to discuss his hopes to keep peace with their Lenape neighbors.
This actual Lenape deed, from July 15, 1682, is for land in Buck’s County, Pennsylvania, that was negotiated by William Venn’s agent William Markham. Signatures and distinguishing marks of Indian leaders can be seen at the bottom.
This painting depicts William Penn with members of the Lenape, Shawnee, and Susquehannock tribes. The “Walking Purchase” treaty that Penn signed with them stated that the land he purchased would extend as far as a person could walk in a day and a half. However, fifty years later, when the treaty was carried out, non-Quaker colonists cheated the Indians by using skilled runners who covered twice that distance.
La-Pa-Win-Soe was a powerful Lenape chief who signed the “Walking Purchase” treaty. Indian tribes in the Delaware Valley looked to their leaders for guidance and honor.
The Lenape were remarkably skilled at utilizing the natural world. Longhouses are one of the best examples of their handiwork. Men and boys would uproot young trees, called saplings, curve them into frames, and cover them with strips of bark. These homes provided the Lenape with comfortable shelter throughout the year.
The interior of the longhouse was quite large. Wooden benches used for beds lined the walls; storage shelves were stacked with baskets overhead; and drying herbs and corn hung from the ceiling. Lenape women cooked, sewed, and performed many daily duties inside the longhouse.
The Lenape were egalitarian, and women played a vital role in society. Gardens and houses were considered their property, and family inheritance was traced through the mother.
Trunks of large trees were used to make dugout canoes so the Lenape could travel vast distances swiftly by river. The inside of trees were burned, and the charred wood was scraped away with stone tools to hollow out the interior.
Captive narratives began to appear as early as the mid-1600s. This narrative written by Mary Rowlandson was published in 1682. Captive narratives such as this one provided valuable insight into the Indians’ way of life and their treatment of captives.
It was not uncommon for captives to feel bewildered and displaced when they returned to their native communities.
For the colonists, candle making was a tedious chore involving tallow, or hard animal fat. Here is a simple candle making recipe using paraffin wax, which replaced tallow in the late 1800s.
For enjoyment, Lenape families would dance around fires at night and sing chants
Quaker families recited psalms from the Bible for comfort and to reaffirm their beliefs.
Modern map of the continental United States, showing the approximate location of the Delaware Valley in Pennsylvania.
This map of the Delaware Valley and surrounding areas shows places mentioned in the diary.
About the Author
Mary Pope Osborne has long had an interest in American history. She has published biographies of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, as well as a collection of American tall tales. Her interest in the Lenape Indians began ten years ago when she and her husband, Will, bought a summer cabin in the woods of the Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania. Her knowledge of the area, combined with a fascination with Indian captive narratives and a deep respect for the Quaker faith, led her to develop the story that became Catharine’s diary.
“In the autumn, while writing in our cabin, on land where Catharine’s farm might have been, I felt as if I were living in a sort of dream time. At midnight, listening to the leaves rattling in the wind, I felt Catharine’s
fear as she anticipated the Indians’ attack. Canoeing on our creek, I was Catharine traveling to the Lenape camp. Walking near a cornfield on a cool, sunny day, I imagined the moment when the soldiers crashed through the corn rows. I attended meetings at an historic Quaker meetinghouse nearby. I roamed the site of a Lenape village. My own experiences in the Delaware Valley made Catharine’s life feel immediate and alive to me.”
Mary Pope Osborne is the award-winning author of more than forty books for children, among them the bestselling Magic Tree House series; One World, Many Religions, a 1997 Orbis Pictus Honor Book; and four books of classic stories from around the world, including Favorite Medieval Tales published by Scholastic Press. She has just completed two terms as president of the Authors Guild, the leading authors’ organization in America.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank The Museum of the American Indian in New York City; The Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania; The Quaker Meetinghouse in Quakertown, Pennsylvania; and The Churchville Nature Center in Churchville, Pennsylvania. She would also like to thank Tracy Mack for her wonderful editing, Marge Custer at The Churchville Nature Center, Sheila Kogan, Diane Nesin, and Melissa Jenkins.
Dear America: Standing in the Light Page 8
