Who Was Daniel Boone? by Sydelle Kramer

Author:Sydelle Kramer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US

One night, as James and the men made camp, wolves began to howl. It was another bad omen. Sure enough, Indians attacked around dawn. In the eyes of the braves, James and the others were breaking the treaty. They were stealing Indian land. No mercy was shown. James was shot and stabbed to death. Only two men escaped. They snuck back to Daniel and the others.

Daniel was grief-stricken when he heard the news. So was Rebecca. Sending his son off was a decision Daniel regretted for the rest of his life. But he was determined not to change his plans. The other pioneers, though, were too frightened to go on. They headed back to the Yadkin Valley. That left the Boones alone and without a home. They were forced to spend the winter in western Virginia, in the cabin of a friend.

But by 1774, Kentucky was legally open to white settlement. A powerful man named Richard Henderson bought up two hundred thousand acres of land. Henderson offered Daniel a deal. Daniel would build a road to Henderson’s land. Then he would guide a group of settlers there and help them construct a town. When all this was accomplished, Henderson would give Daniel two thousand acres. Daniel agreed to the deal.

Henderson had bought his land from Cherokee Indians. He’d convinced them to sell it for a few thousand dollars worth of clothing, knives, guns, and liquor. However, not all the braves were happy about the sale. The young warriors of the tribe believed it would lead to disaster. White men would end up taking all their land from them. Dragging Canoe, the son of a famous chief, was especially furious. He told Daniel, “You have bought a fair land, but there is a cloud hanging over it. You will find its settlement dark and chilling.”

Daniel ignored him. He was desperate to return to his hunter’s paradise and claim his own land. In March 1775, he led another party of about thirty men out of Tennessee to the Great Warrior’s Path. There was snow in the mountains and mud in the valleys. But that didn’t stop them from starting a road. Chopping down trees and hacking away bushes, they widened the Path. Now wagons could cross it. Over cold, icy peaks, through rain-soaked valleys, they built log bridges and leveled the trail. The route they created was named the Wilderness Road.

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