Early Life
John Tanner was the son of the Rev. John Tanner and his wife of Virginia. He was born about 1780. As part of the post-Revolutionary War westward migrations, his family moved to country on the Ohio River in Kentucky in 1789. It was considered dangerous as settlers competed for territory with Native Americans who tried to defend their lands.
In 1790 at age 10, Tanner was captured by a Shawnee warrior. He became thoroughly assimilated into Native American culture after he was sold to an Ojibwa tribe. He traveled with them as far west as the Little Saskatchewan River, near its confluence with the Assiniboine and the present site of Brandon, Manitoba.
Read more about this topic: John Tanner (narrator)
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)