In “The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, And The Kidnap That Shaped America,” Matthew Pearl explores the little-known true story of the kidnapping of the daughter of the legendary pioneer Daniel Boone and the dramatic aftermath that rippled across the nation.
On a quiet midsummer day in 1776, weeks after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, thirteen-year-old Jemima Boone and her friends Betsy and Fanny Callaway were captured near their home in the Kentucky settlement of Boonesboro, the echoes of their faraway screams lingering in the air.
A Cherokee-Shawnee raiding party had taken the girls as the latest salvo in the blood feud between American Indians and the colonial settlers who had decimated their native lands and resources. Hanging Maw, the raiders’ leader, recognized one of the captives as Jemima Boone, the daughter of one of Kentucky’s most influential pioneers, and realized that she could be a valuable pawn in the battle to drive the colonists out of the contested Kentucky territory.
With Daniel Boone and a group of settlers in pursuit, Hanging Maw devised a plan that might bring greater peace to both the tribes and the colonists. Meanwhile the captive girls found clever ways to leave a trail, and the raiding party was overtaken and ambushed by Boone and the rescuers in a battle with reverberations that nobody could foresee. As Matthew Pearl reveals, the exciting story of Jemima Boone’s kidnapping vividly illuminates the early days of America’s westward expansion, and the violent and tragic clashes across cultural lines that ensued.
In this enthralling narrative, Pearl unearths a forgotten and dramatic series of events from early in the Revolutionary War that opens a window into America’s transition from colony to nation, with heavy moral costs incurred amid shocking new alliances and betrayals.
This episode is also discussed in “Blood And Treasure: Daniel Boone And The Fight For America’s First Frontier.” Both books are available at the Jesse Stuart Foundation bookstore, 4440 13th Street in Ashland. For more information call 606-326-1667 or email jsf@jsfbooks.com.
By James M. Gifford
JSF CEO & Senior Editor
In “The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, And The Kidnap That Shaped America,” Matthew Pearl explores the little-known true story of the kidnapping of the daughter of the legendary pioneer Daniel Boone and the dramatic aftermath that rippled across the nation.
On a quiet midsummer day in 1776, weeks after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, thirteen-year-old Jemima Boone and her friends Betsy and Fanny Callaway were captured near their home in the Kentucky settlement of Boonesboro, the echoes of their faraway screams lingering in the air.
A Cherokee-Shawnee raiding party had taken the girls as the latest salvo in the blood feud between American Indians and the colonial settlers who had decimated their native lands and resources. Hanging Maw, the raiders’ leader, recognized one of the captives as Jemima Boone, the daughter of one of Kentucky’s most influential pioneers, and realized that she could be a valuable pawn in the battle to drive the colonists out of the contested Kentucky territory.
With Daniel Boone and a group of settlers in pursuit, Hanging Maw devised a plan that might bring greater peace to both the tribes and the colonists. Meanwhile the captive girls found clever ways to leave a trail, and the raiding party was overtaken and ambushed by Boone and the rescuers in a battle with reverberations that nobody could foresee. As Matthew Pearl reveals, the exciting story of Jemima Boone’s kidnapping vividly illuminates the early days of America’s westward expansion, and the violent and tragic clashes across cultural lines that ensued.
In this enthralling narrative, Pearl unearths a forgotten and dramatic series of events from early in the Revolutionary War that opens a window into America’s transition from colony to nation, with heavy moral costs incurred amid shocking new alliances and betrayals.
This episode is also discussed in “Blood And Treasure: Daniel Boone And The Fight For America’s First Frontier.” Both books are available at the Jesse Stuart Foundation bookstore, 4440 13th Street in Ashland. For more information call 606-326-1667 or email jsf@jsfbooks.com.
By James M. Gifford
JSF CEO & Senior Editor
