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Authors: Conn Iggulden
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three hundred miles long. By the end of the century, some two hundred thousand settlers had traveled on it across the mountains. On the Kentucky River, Boone established the settlement he named Boonesborough and moved his family there that September.
This movement of settlers west of the Appalachians was in complete breach of the 1763 proclamation. Native Americans were not pleased about it. Neither was the British government, but short of garrisoning the long border with soldiers, there was little it could do. The independent-minded colonists simply ignored the law; in those days London was several months away.
Discontent had thus been simmering for several years. Many settlers saw the proclamation as an unjustifiable interference in their travel, trade, and search for wealth. In addition, it was argued that if British soldiers garrisoned in North America were not going to protect the settlers in their move westward, there was no point in having them.
In Massachusetts, open rebellion broke out at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, with a surprise attack on the British garrisonsthere. A second attack on Boston in June was defeated at Bunker Hill, and the American Revolutionary War was begun.
Named the American War of Independence on the other side of the Atlantic, in fact it was a civil warâBritons fighting Britons, colonists fighting colonists. All civil wars create more than usually strong passions, and between 1775 and 1782, each side vented its frustrations and anger. Daniel Booneâs personal experience is typical of these divisions: he was charged with collaborating with the enemy.
His first daughter, Jemima, and two other teenage girls were captured by Shawnee outside Boonesborough, ten days after the 1776 Declaration of Independence. Like the majority of Native Americans, the Shawnee supported Britain. Boone and two other men set off in pursuit. For two days he tracked the Shawnee warriors westward through the wilderness, until he caught up to them, ambushed them, rescued the girls, and returned safely to Boonesborough. James Fenimore Cooper fictionalized the event in The Last of the Mohicans, Hawkeye taking the part of Daniel Boone.
The next year Boone was shot in the ankle during a Shawnee attack on Boonesborough. For almost a year the settlement was under attack and the settlersâ crops and cattle destroyed. In February 1778, Boone led out a party of thirty men for desperately needed fresh food and salt. While the others collected salt, Boone was hunting for game when he was sighted by some Shawnee. He ran, but he was now forty-five years old, and he was caught by fleet-footed warriors half his age.
The Shawnee chief, Blackfish, was about to fall on the rest of Booneâs party and then assault Boonesborough. Boone persuaded Blackfish not to kill the salt collectors if they surrendered without fighting. They were all escorted to the Shawnee village of Chillicothe. Boone further persuaded Blackfish that Boonesborough was too heavily defended for an assault to succeed. The party was kept prisoner by the Shawnee for many months.
During his imprisonment, Boone was forced to ârun the gauntletââto run between two lines of warriors facing inward and armed withtomahawks and knives. He ducked, sidestepped, and twisted through the slashing tomahawks in the first half of the gauntlet, handed off the next few warriors, and simply sprinted past the last to survive. Blackfish adopted him into his tribe, giving him the name Sheltowee, âBig Turtle.â Yet he still turned him and his party over to the British at Fort Detroit as prisoners.
In mid-June, Boone discovered that the Shawnee were planning a major attack against Boonesborough. He escaped from Detroit and in five days made the 160-mile journey to the settlement by horse and foot to alert the settlers. The fortifications of the wooden village were quickly improved. In September, Shawnee surrounded Boonesborough, but Boone
This movement of settlers west of the Appalachians was in complete breach of the 1763 proclamation. Native Americans were not pleased about it. Neither was the British government, but short of garrisoning the long border with soldiers, there was little it could do. The independent-minded colonists simply ignored the law; in those days London was several months away.
Discontent had thus been simmering for several years. Many settlers saw the proclamation as an unjustifiable interference in their travel, trade, and search for wealth. In addition, it was argued that if British soldiers garrisoned in North America were not going to protect the settlers in their move westward, there was no point in having them.
In Massachusetts, open rebellion broke out at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, with a surprise attack on the British garrisonsthere. A second attack on Boston in June was defeated at Bunker Hill, and the American Revolutionary War was begun.
Named the American War of Independence on the other side of the Atlantic, in fact it was a civil warâBritons fighting Britons, colonists fighting colonists. All civil wars create more than usually strong passions, and between 1775 and 1782, each side vented its frustrations and anger. Daniel Booneâs personal experience is typical of these divisions: he was charged with collaborating with the enemy.
His first daughter, Jemima, and two other teenage girls were captured by Shawnee outside Boonesborough, ten days after the 1776 Declaration of Independence. Like the majority of Native Americans, the Shawnee supported Britain. Boone and two other men set off in pursuit. For two days he tracked the Shawnee warriors westward through the wilderness, until he caught up to them, ambushed them, rescued the girls, and returned safely to Boonesborough. James Fenimore Cooper fictionalized the event in The Last of the Mohicans, Hawkeye taking the part of Daniel Boone.
The next year Boone was shot in the ankle during a Shawnee attack on Boonesborough. For almost a year the settlement was under attack and the settlersâ crops and cattle destroyed. In February 1778, Boone led out a party of thirty men for desperately needed fresh food and salt. While the others collected salt, Boone was hunting for game when he was sighted by some Shawnee. He ran, but he was now forty-five years old, and he was caught by fleet-footed warriors half his age.
The Shawnee chief, Blackfish, was about to fall on the rest of Booneâs party and then assault Boonesborough. Boone persuaded Blackfish not to kill the salt collectors if they surrendered without fighting. They were all escorted to the Shawnee village of Chillicothe. Boone further persuaded Blackfish that Boonesborough was too heavily defended for an assault to succeed. The party was kept prisoner by the Shawnee for many months.
During his imprisonment, Boone was forced to ârun the gauntletââto run between two lines of warriors facing inward and armed withtomahawks and knives. He ducked, sidestepped, and twisted through the slashing tomahawks in the first half of the gauntlet, handed off the next few warriors, and simply sprinted past the last to survive. Blackfish adopted him into his tribe, giving him the name Sheltowee, âBig Turtle.â Yet he still turned him and his party over to the British at Fort Detroit as prisoners.
In mid-June, Boone discovered that the Shawnee were planning a major attack against Boonesborough. He escaped from Detroit and in five days made the 160-mile journey to the settlement by horse and foot to alert the settlers. The fortifications of the wooden village were quickly improved. In September, Shawnee surrounded Boonesborough, but Boone