This post is by guest writer Helen
Gaines.
There
are a great many names which stand out in the history
of upstate New York, all of which are worthy of considerable
exploration. One of these is Sir William Johnson. An ambitious,
grandiose, and eccentric man of ambivalent morals, he has made his
mark not only on history but within popular culture. In 1993, he was
played by Pierce Brosnan in the movie ‘The Broken Chain’, as a
foil for the Iroquois heroes. He also features as a villain in the
‘Assassin’s Creed’ video game series [1]. During his time, he
was considered a war hero by the British, and evidently (at least
until his ambitions got the better of him) held in high esteem by the
Iroquois. He also delighted the public with tales of his impetuously
eccentric behavior – one account has him expressing his disapproval
of another officer’s conduct by stripping naked and parading in
front of him [2]. He was most famed, however, for his close relations
with the Iroquois, and his prominent role in the settlement of many
Catholic Scots families within upstate New York. However, whether he
promoted these groups from pure motives or for exploitative ones
remains a moot point…
Johnson
And The Iroquois
Rather
like T.E. Lawrence (‘Lawrence Of Arabia’) a couple of centuries
later, Johnson has been viewed as the kind of semi-mythical
colonial-native which the West adores. Tales about him are cut from
the same cloth as the ‘Tarzan’ stories (Tarzan, of course, being
a member of the English aristocracy) and ‘Dances With Wolves’ –
tales in which the white man embeds himself in a ‘savage’
culture, excels at the ways of the natives even better then they
themselves do, and ultimately saves the day. Plenty of stories about
William Johnson have an uncomfortable tinge of the eternally popular
‘White Savior’ motif [3]. However, it cannot be denied that his
conduct with the Iroquois nations, particularly his closest nation,
the Mohawk, differed considerably to many approaches of the time. He
made a point of learning their customs and ways of doing business,
and was deemed useful enough to the Mohawk to be appointed an
honorary sachem or
civil chief. The Mohawk named him Warraghiyagey which,
roughly translated, means ‘Man who accomplishes great things’. He
was always careful to deal with the Mohawk according to the customs
they preferred, and by all accounts his diplomatic dealings with them
were faultless – so much so that he was appointed the British
military and diplomatic embassy to them. Indeed, after he left the
role, the Mohawk insisted that a faltering agreement with the British
would only be upheld if Johnson were to be reinstated [4]. He also
included Iroquois women in his numerous affairs.
Sympathy
For The Oppressed?
All
of this would seem to paint a picture of a man more enlightened than
others of his time, who respected the native way of life and
acknowledged a certain indigenous sovereignty. Some have seen him as
a kind of kindred spirit of the Iroquois – claiming that his
background as a member of an ‘oppressed minority’ may have led
him to sympathise with their plight. Notably, later in life he made a
point of extending land to Catholic families in Scotland who were
losing their land to sheep-farmers in much the same way that the
Iroquois were losing their nation to Europeans. Johnson grew up as a
member of the Anglo-Irish gentry – not a particularly oppressed
group, until the caveat of their Roman Catholicism is taken into
account. Roman Catholicism was a powerful force for those families
which held it – the Catholic doctrine of forgiveness in particular
providing a valuable kind of psychological security [5] denied to the
increasingly self-punishing brand of American Protestantism. At
the time, Catholic powers had been making periodic attempts to take
the throne of Britain and reinstate Catholicism to the place as
National Religion that it had lost some two centuries beforehand.
Johnson’s family had even sympathised with the latest attempt –
the Jacobite Rebellion. As a consequence, to be Catholic was to be
hated, derided, and denied opportunity within Britain. Johnson
converted to Protestantism in order to advance his career – but it
has been suggested that he retained his Catholic sympathies, and
exercised them in his dealings with the Iroquois and the Catholic
Highlanders. Whether or not this was true, only the man himself knew.
He was vociferous in his defence of the Anglican church [6] against
French Catholic attempts to build a place of worship in his town, but
this may have had more to do with anti-French sentiment than with
religious conviction.
Crafty
Exploitation?
But
was Johnson really a fair and rational sympathiser with the plight of
oppressed peoples? Or was he rather more self-serving than that? It
must be remembered that Johnson first came to an acquaintance with
Iroquois culture in the pursuance of saleable resources like furs –
resources which would ultimately make him rich. This pattern of
dealing with the Iroquois only when he wanted something from them
followed throughout his life. His main efforts involved persuading
them to fight for the British – which he did with gusto and great
success. Yet he also did so with notable grandiosity, effectively
trying to assert sole control over Iroquois foreign affairs. After
the war, his more dubious colors began to show through. Already a
very wealthy man, he used his wheedling skills and royally-appointed
position to charm, cajole, and threaten the Iroquois out of vast
tracts of land. He subsequently became one of the largest landholders
in the country. In this, many historians have pointed out that he
acted no differently to any other man of his age [7] – but it is
curious that a man painted as one so in touch with the Iroquois and
thus knowledgeable of the spiritual value of the land they used
should appropriate it for his own use in this manner. He even
disobeyed the rules of an official Royal Proclamation which sought to
restrict the amount of land taken from native groups – and pushed
the boundaries of the ‘no settlement zone’ 400 miles west,
enabling him and like-minded settlers to grab much more land than
even the British Crown approved of. All of this speaks of a man who
charmed the Iroquois more for his own sake rather than for theirs.
Which brings us to the matter of the Catholic Highlanders.
Tribal
Diplomacy
The
tale of the Catholic Highlanders can be told in two ways: 1) William
Johnson saw that Catholics and Jacobins such as his own family were
suffering from shameful oppression in their native land, and invited
them over to America, where he provided them with land and a living.
2) William Johnson saw a group of desperate people with tribal
leanings he knew he could exploit, and imported them as a tame
workforce over which he could lord it. It is doubtful that even the
Catholic Highlanders themselves could have told you the truth of the
matter. Certainly Johnson invited over the disparate Scots, and
certainly he leased them land. He also helped them to improve their
land and their stock. But many historians believe that he chose this
group of people not because of any cultural sympathy, but because
they would be isolated culturally and linguistically from all others
surrounding them in America (thus making them more reliant upon him),
and because they were already inured with a Georgian-British-style
biddable nature towards feudal lords [8]. He became very rich off the
rent they paid him, and his practice of using African slaves
indicates that he was not averse to using human labor in an
exploitative manner.
A
Cultural Chameleon
Just
as he did with the Iroquois, Johnson used the cultural
characteristics of the Scots Highlanders to get what he wanted. He
pandered to their traditions, throwing ceilidhs and banquets with one
hand and raising the rent with the other. What he seemed to have been
very good at was a cultural-chameleon act. He managed to identify and
isolate groups which were in need of help, and convince them by
mimicking their own cultures that he could help them. He helped
himself greatly in so doing. However, whatever the motive, the end
result was the same: the Iroquois got a measure of respect under
Johnson’s tenure as ambassador to them – much more than they had
enjoyed before or would enjoy after in their dealings with Europeans.
The Catholic Highlanders got a place to live, and a way in which to
preserve their language and culture. Unfortunately, after Johnson’s
death, the situation for both groups worsened. Sir William’s son,
John Johnson, had none of the diplomatic skill of his father. He was
arrogant, and lordly – and ill-suited for warfare. He exhorted the
Catholic Highlanders to arm themselves for the loyalist cause during
the American Revolution, but his command proved disastrous. Sir
John’s conduct during the war meant that the region became highly
suspect to the Patriots, and most of the Highland families fled
piecemeal to Canada over the course of the War and its immediate
aftermath (as did Sir John). As for the Iroquois – well, their
diminished state today demonstrates how they fared after the death of
William Johnson.
[1]
Ubisoft, Assassin’s
Creed
[2]
Fintan O’Toole, “White
Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America”, Faber
And Faber
[3]
David Sirota, “Oscar
loves a white savior” , Salon, 2013
[4]
Timothy J Shannon, “Iroquois
Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier”, penguin Books, Jun
2009
[5]
Arthur P Ciaramicoli, “The
Heart Of Forgiveness”, Recovery.org, Mar 2015
[6]
Alan Taylor, “The
Collaborator”, New Republic, Sept 2006
[7]
Julian Gwyn, “Johnson,
Sir William”, Dictionary Of Canadian Biography
[8]
J.P MacLean, “Settlements
of Scotch Highlanders in America”, First pub; Royal Society,
1900. Retrieved Electric Scotland 2015
Johnson Hall in Johnstown is a New York State Historic Site and Sir William's earlier home, known as Old Fort Johnson in Amsterdam NY is a National Historic Site. Both are well worth visiting. If you are touring the area, also be sure to stop at Fort Klock in nearby St. Johnsville. A little farther west, the old Indian Castle Church near Little Falls is all that remains of the Mohawk village where Sir William's beloved Molly Brant and her brother, the war chief Joseph Brant, lived. Nearby is the Herkimer Home, the well preserved residence of General Nicholas Herkimer who was fatally wounded while fighting the British and Iroquois led by Sir John Johnson at the battle of Oriskany.
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