Poetry on the Death of Ezekiel Crane, and Execution of Indian John

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet poetry, my bosom fire, My mental and my muse inspire." Indian John declares that "Then me would kill all white men dead." He manages to shoot Ezekiel Crane, but is captured. Even the Indians are glad that he is to be executed
AUTHOR: Jason Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (source: Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: homicide Indians(Am.) execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1818 - Murder of Ezekiel Crane by "Indian John"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 436-439, "Poetry on the Death of Ezekiel Crane, and Execution of Indian John" (1 excerpt, of 50 lines out of 280 in the original; that's about 49 lines too many....)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Portrait and Biographical Record of Seneca and Schuler Counties, New York_, Chapman Publishing Co, 1895 (available on Google Books), pp. 185-187, "Poetry on the Death of Ezekiel Crane, and Execution of Indian John" (1 [monotonously complete] text)
NOTES [59 words]: For another account of this incident, almost as racist as this poem, see J.O. Noyes, The Lakes & Legends of Central New-York: A Virtually Unknown Rambling Account of Life and Times in Upstate, New York, 1857, W.E. Morrison & Co., 1973. Apparently the incident actually happened, and Indian John's skeleton was preserved and became a surgeon's model. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: TNY436

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