The Girty Brothers were renegade American Frontier Partisans who deserted to the British and became effective agents and partisan leaders among the tribes of the Ohio River Valley. Art by Alan Fitzpatrick, https://frontiervisionsofamerica.com/frontier-art-work
Part I of the Frontier Partisans Podcast exploring the remarkable American life of Simon Girty is up. You can access it here.
Girty was an ace Frontier Partisan — and, for most of the past couple of centuries, the most hated and reviled man in American frontier history. Simon Girty and his brothers James and George — who had all been captured and adopted by Indians during the French & Indian War — defected to the British at the height of the American Revolution in 1778, and would play active roles in operations against American settlements in western Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Early triumphalist history portrayed them as race-traitors and fiends.
We’ve (hopefully) moved past such caricatures now and can recognize that this isn’t a good guys vs. bad guys morality play. The cultural, political and military terrain of borderlands is always complex, and nowhere more so than along the Ohio River in the mid-to-late 18th century, where world-historical tectonic shifts were underway, and every individual must struggle to keep their footing.
It’s high time for Frontier Partisans to tackle this great American story, in all its tragedy and glory, and I’m enjoying the doing of it. Hope you enjoy the listening.
Matthew says
Fascinating. Can’t wait to the next episode.
Matthew says
Another podcast you might be interested in. They talk about Robert E. Howard’s Xuthal of the Dusk and interview Brian Murphy
https://www.patreon.com/posts/50067760
Quixotic Mainer says
Awesome stuff Jim!
I seem to recall Ben Franklin made note of the cultural divide as it happened, where colonists adopted by the tribes rarely wished to go back, and that those who were reintegrated into white civilization often lost their minds. Like poor Cynthia Parker a few centuries down the trail.
JimC says
Yep. Franklin seems to have found the implications disturbing.