The Backwoodsmen

T HE stories in this book are about the pioneers and backwoodsmen of America. Do you know where the backwoodsmen lived? Do you know who they were? Do you know what they did for our country?

Take your geography and look at the map of the United States. Do you see the mountains in the eastern part? They run from Pennsylvania through Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas into Georgia.

In the early days of our country all this land was covered with dense forests. These mountains were like a great wall, which made it difficult to go from the east to the west except by following the valleys. Daniel Boone's father took his large family and went from Pennsylvania five hundred miles down one of the great valleys, and settled in the western part of North Carolina.

At the foot of these mountains, on the hill-sides and along the valleys, lived those early settlers who were called the backwoodsmen. They differed from the people who lived in the lowlands along the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the backwoodsmen were English, but most of them were Scotch and Irish.

About the time that George Washington was born, these Scotch-Irish people came to America in great numbers. They landed in the north at Philadelphia, and in the south at Charleston, in South Carolina. They were strong and brave men. Armed with rifle and ax, they crossed the lowlands and pushed their way into the wilderness, to make homes for themselves along the mountains.

Life in the wilderness was full of hardship and danger, on account of the wild beasts and the Indians. But these sturdy settlers were not afraid. They built log cabins to live in. They cut down the trees and cleared the land for the planting of corn. They built log churches and log schoolhouses. Before many years had passed away, they had become Americans in their dress and ways of living. They were stanch patriots.

After a while hunters and fur traders began to go deeper and deeper into the wilderness. Sometimes they came back with stories about the rich land and the wonderful scenery far to the west.

It was not long before a terrible war broke out between the settlers in Virginia and the Shawnee Indians. The hunters and fur traders were driven out of the western country. The Shawnees were led by the fierce and cruel chief Cornstalk, and by the famous chief Logan. But after a time they were defeated in one of the hardest battles ever fought with the redskins.

After the defeat of the Indians the backwoodsmen went still farther into the west. James Robertson settled in the middle of what is now Tennessee. George Rogers Clark took from the English the great region north of the Ohio River. Daniel Boone began the first real settlement in Kentucky.