Kick A** Women in History...Mary Neely

As we continue to share stories of "kick a** women in history" & during the month of July where we're focusing on Women of Revolutionary times...We now look at Mary Neely. We enlist the help of author Patricia Terrell who gives us this summary: Only 18 years old when her father decided it would be safer to move the family westward from Virginia to Fort Nashborough (now Nashville, TN), Mary and her family thought they would be leaving the areas in which the Revolutionary War was at a fever pitch. However, Fort Detroit (Michigan) was under the control of the British. So Henry Hamilton made alliances with various Indian tribes to capture American women, children and men. By bringing these captives (or their scalps, if they were killed) to Fort Detroit, the British agreed to pay the Indians for them, but released them back to them to do with them as they wished. In early August 1780, Mary Neely, was boiling water and singing at Neely's Salt Lick (near present-day Nashville) when Shawnee warriors attacked, killing and scalping her father and capturing Mary.....to learn more of Mary's capture and subsequent adventures tune in!