THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
John Slover
Butterfield, Consul Wilshire in: An Historical
Account of the Expedition Against Sandusky
under Col. William Crawford in 1782,
(Cincinnati, 1873), pp. 126-127.
The permission of the latter having been obtained,2 the doctor left Pittsburg on Tuesday, the 21st, and arrived at Mingo Bottom the next day, about one in the afternoon.
JOHN SLOVER, one of the guides to the expedition, was also a resident of Westmoreland county. He was a Virginian by birth, and peculiarly fitted for the position. He had been taken captive by the Miami Indians when only eight years of age, spending the next six years of his life with that tribe, in what is now Southwestern Ohio. The circumstances attending his capture were barbarous and cruel. The Indians came to his father's house during his absence, while the children, consisting of John, his brother Abraham, and two sisters, were a short distance away, playing. On discovering the savages, John and the two sisters ran to the house; but Abraham made his escape, although pursued some distance by two Indians. The mother and three children were taken to the woods, the house plundered, and then burned.
Taking their prisoners and all they could carry of the plunder, the savages began their march for their distant homes. They had proceeded, however, but a short distance, when the father returned home. Seeing the devastation around- his family all gone- (page 127) he was but too well assured it was the work of the Indians. In his great distress, he lost his presence of mind, calling loudly the names of his family. The Indians hearing him, halted, and sent back two of their number. The father was soon killed. In a short time the two savages returned to their party with the horse their victim had been riding. The mother knew here husband had been killed.
On the journey of the Indians to their towns, they gave their prisoners but little to eat. Through fatigue and want of food the two sisters died in the wilderness. Slover's mother was afterward exchanged, and returned home, where she died soon after. Slover, after he had been with the Miamis six years, was sold to a Delaware Indian, who put him into the hands of a white man- a trader. By the latter he was taken to the Shawanese upon the Scioto river, where he remained six years longer. He was now twenty years of age. In the autumn of 1773, he came with the Shawanese to Fort Pitt, to a treaty of that year. Meeting with some of his relatives, he was persuaded, after much reluctance, to relinquish the life of a savage- though he had scarcely known any other- for the refinements of civilization.
At the commencement of the Revolution, Slover
enlisted as a soldier in the Continental army, and served fifteen months, when
he was discharged. He afterward married, and settled in Westmoreland county.
__________________
2 No better evidence is needed that Col. Gibson approved of the expedition.
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