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Simon Girty

Wilderness Warrior

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About this listen

During the American Revolution and the border conflicts that followed, Simon Girty's name struck terror into the hearts of U.S. settlers in the Ohio Valley and the territory of Kentucky. Girty (1741-1818) had lived with the Natives most of his life. Scorned by his fellow white frontiersmen as an "Indian lover," Girty became an Indian agent for the British. He accompanied Native raids against Americans, spied deep into enemy territory, and was influential in convincing the tribes to fight for the British.

The Americans declared Girty an outlaw. In U.S. history books he is a villain even worse than Benedict Arnold. Yet in Canada, Girty is regarded as a Loyalist hero, and a historic plaque marks the site of his homestead on the Ontario side of the Detroit River.

In Native history, Girty stands out as one of the few white men who championed their cause against American expansion. But was he truly the "White Savage" of legend, or a hero whose story was twisted by his foes?

©2011 Edward Butts (P)2013 Audible Inc. Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Americas Historical Military & War Politicians Politics & Activism Revolution & Founding True Crime United States War Imperialism War of 1812 Africa United Kingdom British Empire Old West Wild West
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While I enjoyed the book unfortunately I’m forced to leave a slightly negative review. I am not sure what is so hard for authors and historians from North America to grasp, about writing accurate historical accounts about the ethnic origins of figures in question.
In multiple books I read people are described as ‘Irish’ when they absolutely were not. The author does this immediately in this. People in this period who sailed from Ulster during this period most certainly did not call themselves ‘Irish’ Simon’s father definitely wouldn’t have called himself Irish. They were all either lowland Scots or English from Cumbria and Northumberland. The term Ulster Scots is a misnomer and unfortunately North American authors seem to be completely unable to grasp that Protestants from this region were not Irish. It is this poor scholarship that has left literally millions of people in Canada and the USA believing they are ethnically Irish when it is absolutely obvious considering their surnames and denominational background that it is not the case.

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