White savage : William Johnson and the invention of America

Author / Creator

O'Toole, Fintan, 1958-

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Physical

Summary

A new biography of the man who forged America's alliance with the Iroquois. William Johnson was scarcely more than a boy when he left Ireland and his Gaelic, Catholic family to become a Protestant ...

A new biography of the man who forged America's alliance with the Iroquois. William Johnson was scarcely more than a boy when he left Ireland and his Gaelic, Catholic family to become a Protestant in the service of Britain's North American empire. In New York by 1738, Johnson moved to the frontiers along the Mohawk River, where he eventually became a landowner; served as principal British intermediary with the Iroquois Confederacy; commanded British, colonial, and Iroquois forces that helped to defeat the French in 1755; and created the first groups of "rangers," who fought like Indians and led the way to the Patriots' victories in the Revolution. The key to Johnson's effectiveness was the style in which he lived as a "white savage." He had two wives, one European, one Mohawk; became fluent in Mohawk; and pioneered the use of Indians as active partners in the making of a new America.--From publisher description.

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