Indian Hannah

Hannah Freeman
Born	Circa 1730 Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania
Died	1802 Chester County, Pennsylvania
Resting place	Cemetery of the Chester County Poorhouse, site of old Embreeville State Hospital
Other names	Indian Hannah
Known for	Selling brooms and woven baskets; last Lenape in Chester County, Pennsylvania

Indian Hannah (Mrs. Hannah Freeman) (1730–1802) was supposedly the last of the Lenni-Lenape Indians (or Delawares) in Chester County, Pennsylvania, USA.

She was born around 1730 in southern Chester County. She moved about the region, at times living in New Jersey, perhaps having a common law Indian husband named Andrew Freeman. She was known throughout the region, wandering with her two dogs Elmun and Putmoe selling brooms and woven baskets. In her later years she lived in the newly constructed Chester County Poorhouse where she died and was the first to be buried in its graveyard.

The claim that Hannah was "the only person of that description [Lenape] left" in the area arose shortly before her death, when her neighbors committed her into the local poorhouse. It opened up land for acquisition Hannah Freeman had legal claim to without breaking with William Penn's promise "that the lands belonged to her people until the last one had abandoned them."

A road is named after her ("Indian Hannah Road") in Newlin Township, Pennsylvania, and there are two memorial markers for her in Chester County, near Embreeville, Pennsylvania.

Hannah Freeman also preserved a bean traditionally grown by her Lenape people as part of the Three Sisters companion planting technique. The bean is named 'Indian Hannah' in her honor, and is sold by Appalachian Heirloom Plant Farm in Ohio.

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Wikipedia