Excerpt: Molly Brant: A Radical Diplomat
 Romantics insist that Molly Brant and William Johnson’s first encounter in 1752 was a matter of fate. As 16-year-old Molly watched British regimental militia pass through Canajoharie, her Mohawk village in what was then the province of New York, she boldly requested a ride on the forces’ most spirited horse. The mounted officer facetiously offered out a hand inviting her to join him. With the agility of an antelope (or cat or gazelle, depending on the storyteller), Molly swung herself up onto the saddle. The startled horse took off and galloped wildly around the parade ground. The image of Molly with her long hair flying out behind her and vivid eyes flashing caught the attention and captured the heart of another officer present, William Johnson, an Irish trader and future Superintendent of Indian Affairs. He immediately determined to pursue Molly and win her love. However, scholarship suggests a more mundane meeting for the couple. It is less quixotic but more likely that Molly and William made initial contact in the Brant home where William conducted business with Molly’s father, Nickus Brant, a prominent village leader.
While Mohawk tradition contends that Molly and William were married in an Indian wedding ceremony and contemporary European-American friends insist that the two were wed at the Episcopal Church in Fort Hunter, no records exist to substantiate or disprove either claim. The importance of those beliefs is that both the Native and White community considered the two married. Evidence that their union was commonly accepted can be ascertained from Canajoharie’s Mohawk council meeting the year after Molly moved to William’s home at Fort Johnson. Council leaders presented William, their “Affectionate Brother and Friend,” with a tract of land along the Mohawk River surveyed at approximately 80,000 acres. This consisted of nearly all the riverfront land left in the Canajoharie Mohawks’ possession. By custom Mohawks would not pass this land over to anyone other than a family member. Additionally, two separate European-American contemporaries wrote about Molly in terms of being William’s “relict.” In the 18th century, the word commonly meant a woman whose husband has died. The description of Molly as William’s widow shows a general recognition of their union’s legitimacy.
Molly’s marriage to William provided her with an opportunity to gain political and economic power. It gave Molly additional prestige among Mohawks, access to influential Indian and European-American men and women, a lavish and socially active lifestyle, authority over her domestic domain, and the ability to secure her own network and influence by running Indian affairs during her husband’s frequent business trips. Molly used these advantages to fulfill her own radical ambitions. She secured the resources, contacts, and experiences necessary to become an effective diplomat between the Native population and colonial Americans. Molly Brant defied contemporary social expectations for her gender and race. She became a major political player at a time when most women could not publicly discuss civic concerns. Although William unexpectedly died in 1774, Molly continued to use her experience and influence to broker cultural and political negotiations throughout the upcoming Revolution.
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