 The setting of the poem is the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania and the massacre that occurred there on July 3, 1778.On that day, more than three hundred American Revolutionaries died at the hands of Loyalists and their Iroquois allies.At the time, it was widely believed that the attack was led by Joseph Brant; in the poem, Brant is described as the "Monster Brant" because of the atrocities committed, although it was later determined that Brant had not actually been present.