Love, Loss, and Loyalty in Two Native-British Marriages, 1760–1815

Anne Hyde’s paper, “Love, Loss, and Loyalty in Two Native-British Marriages, 1760-1815” describes the relationships of two indigenous women who had lifelong relationships with British men. Their choices became complicated when one became a “loyalist” during and after the American Revolution and the other became a “British sympathizer” during the War of 1812. Competing tribal loyalties, family needs, and the shifting grounds of nations and borders made these intimate relationships deeply political. These were more than “couples” in the world of the late 18th and early 19th century shifting view of marriages, but a hybrid of marriage styles that made sense in Ojibwe, Iroquois, and Anglo-American contexts.