The Reading Warehouse

On July 28, 1797, an elderly Lenape woman stood before the newly appointed almsman of Pennsylvania's Chester County and delivered a brief account of her life. In a sad irony, Hannah Freeman was establishing her residency--a claim that paved the way for her removal to the poorhouse. Ultimately, however, it meant final removal from the ancestral land she had so tenaciously maintained. Thus was William Penn's "peaceable kingdom" preserved.

A Lenape among the Quakers reconstructs Freeman's history, from the days of her grandmothers before European settlement to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The story that emerges is one of persistence and resilience, as "Indian Hannah" negotiates life with the Quaker neighbors who employ her, entrust their children to her, seek out her healing skills, and, when she is weakened by sickness and age, care for her. Yet these are the same neighbors whose families then dispossess her own. Fascinating in its own right, Freeman's life is also remarkable as a unique account of a Native American woman in a colonial community during a time of dramatic transformation and upheaval. In particular, it expands our understanding of colonial history and the Native experience that history often renders silent.

Dawn G. Marsh is an associate professor of history at Purdue University.