Time Surfing: Experience History.
Historical Backdrop
In the spring of 1758, the French and Indian War set the American frontier on fire. Britain and France fought for control of the Ohio Country, and both sides armed Native nations to raid enemy settlements. Along Marsh Creek in the Pennsylvania backcountry, Scots-Irish immigrant Thomas Jemison farmed with his wife and children. Our subject is their daughter Mary Jemison, fifteen, born on the ship that carried her family from Ireland. She was fair-haired, hardworking, and had never known anything but the farm.
Date/time and location: Just before dawn, April 1758 — the Jemison cabin, Marsh Creek, Pennsylvania frontier
You wake in the loft before the light comes. The straw tick is cold beneath you and your younger brothers are still asleep close by. Below, you hear your mother stirring the banked coals and the scrape of an iron kettle. Wood smoke and old grease hang in the air. You climb down the ladder, tie your apron, and step out into the gray yard where the chickens are just beginning to complain. The forest wall stands dark and silent past the cleared field. You have chores. You do not know this is the last ordinary morning of your life.
Date/time and location: Early morning, April 1758 — the dooryard and field, Marsh Creek
The sun is up now and the day has begun in earnest. Your father is out among the stumps checking the fence. Your mother sends you to fetch water from the spring while your two little brothers scatter grain for the birds and your older sister works the loom inside. A neighbor man has come with a horse to buy some grain, and he stands talking near the barn. It is a good morning, busy and plain. The smell of turned earth and manure is everywhere. You carry the wooden bucket and think of nothing worse than the weight of it.
Date/time and location: Mid-morning, April 1758 — the Jemison dooryard, moment of the attack
The first sound is wrong—a sharp crack that is not an axe. Then the yelling. Men burst from the tree line, running low and fast, some painted, some in blue coats. You freeze with the bucket still in your hands. Your father shouts. The neighbor’s horse screams and bolts. There is no time to run. Rough hands seize your arm and drag you toward the others being herded together in the yard. The world is suddenly all noise, smoke, and terror, and your heart is slamming against your ribs.
Date/time and location: Mid-morning, April 1758 — the captured group, edge of the clearing
They bind the prisoners and count them. You, your mother, your father, your two little brothers, your sister, the neighbor woman and her children—everyone taken alive stands roped and shaking at the forest edge. The raiders move fast and speak little. One of them slaps a hand against your shoulder, turning you toward the trees. Your mother’s face is white and set. She catches your eye and does not cry. The cabin, your home, stands quiet behind you as the men prod the line forward into the woods.
Date/time and location: Midday, April 1758 — a wooded trail west of the settlement
