Back Mary Brant Catalan Mary Brant German Molly Brant Finnish Molly Brant French മോളി ബ്രാന്റ് Malayalam Molly Brant Portuguese Mary Brant Swedish
Molly Brant | |
|---|---|
 "The Three Faces of Molly Brant" (Iroquois, European, Loyalist): 1986 design used by Canada Post in a commemorative postage stamp | |
| Born | c. 1736 or 1735 Canajoharie on the south bank of the Mohawk River, or Ohio River Valley |
| Died | April 16, 1796 |
| Resting place | St. Paul's Anglican Church, Kingston |
| Nationality | Mohawk |
| Other names | Mary Brant, Konwatsi'tsiaienni, Degonwadonti |
| Spouse | Sir William Johnson |
| Children | 8 |
| Relatives | Joseph Brant (brother) |
| Signature | |
 | |
Molly Brant (c. 1736 – April 16, 1796), also known as Mary Brant, Konwatsi'tsiaienni, and Degonwadonti, was a Mohawk leader in British New York and Upper Canada in the era of the American Revolution. Living in the Province of New York, she was the consort of Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, with whom she had eight children. Joseph Brant, who became a Mohawk leader and war chief, was her younger brother.
After Johnson's death in 1774, Brant and her children left Johnson Hall in Johnstown, New York, and returned to her native village of Canajoharie, further west on the Mohawk River. A Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War, she migrated to British Canada, where she served as an intermediary between British officials and the Iroquois.[1] After the war, she settled in what is now Kingston, Ontario. In recognition of her service to the Crown, the British government gave Brant a pension and compensated her for her wartime losses, including a grant of land. When the British ceded their former colonial territory to the United States, most of the Iroquois nations were forced out of New York. A Six Nations Reserve was established in what is now Ontario.
Since 1994, Brant has been honored as a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada. She was long ignored or disparaged by historians of the United States, but scholarly interest in her increased in the late 20th century. She has sometimes been controversial, criticized for being pro-British at the expense of the Iroquois. Known to have been a devout Anglican, she is commemorated on April 16 in the calendar of the Anglican Church of Canada. No portraits of her are known to exist; an idealized likeness is featured on a statue in Kingston and on a Canadian stamp issued in 1986.