A few edges are torn and the paper has yellowed, but the now-prized letter written by Joseph Brant on Jan. 13, 1785, in Cataraqui (now Kingston) is still in remarkably good condition. And it should stay that way. Queen’s Archives bought the letter at auction this year, almost 239 years to the day that the famed Mohawk military and political leader penned the three pages. We don’t know where exactly in Cataraqui Brant wrote the letter, but we do know that he had been on his way to England that winter when he turned around in Quebec after hearing that his friend and Mohawk chief Aaron Hill had been taken hostage by the Americans.
Brant was, as he writes to New York politician Matthew Visscher, “alarm’d” at the news – and understandably so. The American Revolutionary War had ended and Brant himself had been at the beginning of the peace talks between the Haudenosaunee and U.S. officials that would become the Second Treaty of Fort Stanwix. There should have been no reason why the Six Nations leader would be captured (or so Brant thought), which was partly why he was requesting a meeting in Montreal with an American major.
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Queen’s Assistant Professor of History Scott Berthelette holds a letter written by Joseph Brant in 1785.
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It’s unclear if Brant ever got that meeting, but just having his letter is “incredible,” says Queen’s Assistant Professor of History Scott Berthelette, who researches the history of Indigenous Peoples, the Métis, New France, and the Hudson’s Bay Company. “It’s an important piece of local history because it was written right here by this hugely significant figure from Upper Canada and the American Revolutionary War, this hugely important Mohawk war chief, interpreter, cultural broker.”
And now that the letter is preserved in a vault in Kathleen Ryan Hall, Dr. Berthelette says he will likely use it in his teaching. “Students are really interested in learning about Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe history, so this could be a very valuable pedagogical tool. It’s just awesome that this is here.”
Want to see the letter? Call or email to make an appointment or visit the reading room in Kathleen Ryan Hall on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and request to see it.
