Simon Girty Turncoat Hero

Simon Girty Turncoat Hero is a people's view of pre- and post-revolutionary frontier America as seen through the eyes of a frontiersman whose life spanned both white and red cultures; perhaps the most mysterious, misunderstood and vilified character in early American history. Captured by Indians at age fifteen during the French and Indian War, Girty was adopted into the Seneca tribe and trained as an interpreter. Returning to white society eight years later, he was recruited into the British Indian Department at Fort Pitt. Serving English, rebel-American and Indian leaders for the next thirty years, Girty?s contacts included the great Seneca chief Guyasuta, Sir William Johnson, merchant George Morgan, businessman John Connolly, William Crawford, Matthew Elliott, Alexander McKee, John Murray (Lord Dunmore) Simon Kenton, George Rogers Clark, Mingo chief John Logan, Mohawk Joseph Brant, Half-King of the Wyandots, Moravian missionaries Zeisberger and Heckewelder, Shawnee chiefs Blue Jacket and Tecumseh, Miami chief Little Turtle, and General Anthony Wayne. Land speculators George Washington, Patrick Henry and Ben Franklin are also part of Girty?s story. Serving rebel leaders at the onset of the Revolution, Girty became a patriot hero who, facing a moral dilemma, later defected and spent the remainder of the war aiding British-allied Indians fighting on the frontier. After the Revolution, Girty spent the next ten years helping Indians north of the Ohio River fight off American invaders. His story provides a unique and remarkably human window to the chaotic dynamics of early American frontier politics and conflict.