Simon Girty Turncoat Hero [Paperback]

The subject of this panoramic biography is one of the most mysterious, misunderstood icons of early American history. Simon Girty was a sharp-witted, rascally, many-tongued frontiersman whose epic adventures span the French and Indian War, Dunmore's War, the American War for Independence, the Indian Wars, and the War of 1812.

After defecting from the Patriot cause to serve the British in March 1778, Girty achieved instant infamy. To understand his motivation one must discover, as he did, that the real, underlying cause of the American Revolution was the unquenchable thirst for Indian land of many of our so-called founding fathers - including George Washington - and their unrelenting dissatisfaction with the restrictions imposed upon their land speculation ambitions by the King's Proclamation of 1763.

Like a detective doggedly combing through old evidence, author Phillip Hoffman spent seventeen years studying every detail of Girty's life. By exploring microfilm, ledgers, military records, congressional records, newspaper and magazine articles, and dozens of early American and Canadian fiction and non-fiction works, Hoffman was able to peel away the mythic legend that has hidden Girty's real persona for two and a half centuries.

Little in Simon Girty's life was conventional or predictable. Raised by an Irish Indian trader who had settled near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Simon's earliest experiences quickly isolate him from the majority of the colonists in the region. During the French and Indian War, Simon and his family are captured by hostile Indian warriors, and Simon is carried north and adopted, emerging eight years later as a gifted linguist and a trained interpreter fluent in eleven native languages.

Girty begins his career as a spy-interpreter-intermediary, serving both EnglilÃØ