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Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant), 1743-1807
Convinced that victory for the American colonists meant disaster for Native people, the Mohawk warrior Thayendaneagea (also known as Joseph Brant) led Loyalist troops in a number of devastating campaign against rebel forces during the American Revolutionary War. At the war's conclusion, Brant journeyed to England to remind George III of his promise to compensate the Iroquois Confederacy for their military service and forfeited land.
Brant's old friend Huge Percy, the Duke of Northumberland, who had fought beside him in America, commissioned this imposing likeness from the American artist Gilbert Stuart, who was then based in London. In the portrait, Brant is shown wearing two gifts from the king: a crescent-shaped silver plate (known as a gorget) and a peace medal bearing the monarch's profile. Brant's diplomatic efforts resulted in the award of 675,000 acres on the Grand River in Ontario, Canada, where he settled more than 1,800 Native American and white Loyalists.
Gilbert Stuart, 1786
Private collection |