1. Frances Slocum was an adopted member of the Miami people.
35 Facts About Frances Slocum
1. 2.
Frances Slocum was raised among the Delaware in what is Ohio and Indiana.
3.
Frances Slocum settled with her Miami family at Deaf Man's village along the Mississinewa River near Peru, Indiana.
4.
In 1835 Frances Slocum revealed to a visitor that she was a white woman who had been captured as a child, and two years later, in September 1837, three of Frances Slocum's siblings came to see her.
5.
Frances Slocum fully assimilated into the Native American culture and was accepted as one of its members.
6.
Frances Slocum is buried at Slocum Cemetery in Wabash County, Indiana.
7.
Frances Slocum was one of ten children born to Jonathan and Ruth Slocum.
8.
The Frances Slocum family survived the battle, and felt their Quaker beliefs and friendly relations with the natives would protect them.
9.
Frances Slocum later recalled that they migrated west through Niagara Falls and Detroit, before settling near Kekionga.
10.
Frances Slocum was briefly married to a Delaware sometime around 1791 or 1792.
11.
Frances Slocum first encountered him while traveling through the forest, finding him badly-wounded.
12.
When Frances Slocum joined the Miami she took the name Maconaquah.
13.
Frances Slocum spoke no English, but remembered her white family's name was Slocum and they had been Quakers who lived along the Susquehanna River.
14.
Ewing believed that Frances Slocum wanted to reveal her identity, a secret she had kept for more than fifty years, because she was in poor health and thought she might die soon.
15.
When Ewing met Frances Slocum she was a widow living with her extended family at Deaf Man's village.
16.
The inhabitants of the village, including Frances Slocum, did not speak English and were not Christian.
17.
In 1835 he sent a letter to the postmaster at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, asking if the Frances Slocum family had a relative that was captured by natives about the time of the American Revolutionary War, but the letter was misplaced.
18.
Frances Slocum was aware of the Slocum family's search for their sister, and forwarded the newspaper notice to her brother, Joseph Slocum.
19.
Frances Slocum's siblings were thrilled to see their sister, but they were shocked by her transformation.
20.
Frances Slocum spoke no English and did not remember her Christian name was Frances.
21.
Frances Slocum communicated through an interpreter and only responded to direct questions.
22.
The Frances Slocum siblings tried to convince her to return with them to Pennsylvania, but she refused to leave her native family.
23.
Frances Slocum still refused to leave her Miami family, but she did agree to the Frances Slocum family's request to have her portrait painted.
24.
Frances Slocum, who was living with her daughters and was recognized as the head of the family, was not named as a land grant recipient.
25.
Frances Slocum appealed to her white brothers, Joseph and Isaac Frances Slocum, for help with her petition to United States Congress for exemption from removal.
26.
US Congressman Benjamin Bidlack of Pennsylvania, who introduced the House resolution was sympathetic to her cause and stressed the importance of Frances Slocum staying close to her white relatives, although she had met only a few of them.
27.
Frances Slocum received a land grant of 620 acres of land in Indiana.
28.
The Frances Slocum family commissioned English artist George Winter to paint a portrait of their sister.
29.
Frances Slocum estimated her height at about five feet tall.
30.
Frances Slocum was barefoot and wore little jewelry, with the exception of earrings.
31.
On March 9,1847, Frances Slocum died of pneumonia at Deaf Man's village along the Mississinewa River in Indiana.
32.
Frances Slocum was initially buried near her cabin at Deaf Man's village, beside her second husband, She-pan-can-ah and two sons.
33.
Frances Slocum's story is one of an individual who was forcibly kidnapped and made to fully assimilate into the Native American culture that surrounded her, and was accepted as one of its members.
34.
An oral history of the Miami, written down in the 1960s as told by Miami chief Clarence Godfroy, Frances Slocum's great-great-grandson, describes a woman revered by the Miami community, especially after her second husband's death.
35.
Frances Slocum enjoyed breaking ponies and playing games right alongside the men.