pioneers

Best-selling author David McCullough tells the story of the settlers who began America's migration west, overcoming almost-unimaginable hardships to build in the Ohio wilderness a town and a government that incorporated America's highest ideals. As part of the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain recognized the new United States of America, Britain ceded the land that comprised the immense Northwest Territory, a wilderness empire northwest of the Ohio River containing the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. A Massachusetts minister named Manasseh Cutler was instrumental in opening this vast territory to veterans of the Revolutionary War and their families for settlement. Included in the Northwest Ordinance were three remarkable conditions: freedom of religion, free universal education, and most importantly, the prohibition of slavery. In 1788 the first band of pioneers set out from New England for the Northwest Territory under the leadership of Revolutionary War veteran General Rufus Putnam. They settled in what is now Marietta on the banks of the Ohio River. McCullough tells the story through five major characters: Cutler and Putnam; Cutler's son Ephraim; and two other men, one a carpenter turned architect, and the other a physician who became a prominent figure in American science. They and their families created a town in a primeval wilderness, while coping with such frontier realities as trees of a size never imagined, floods, fires, wolves, bears, even an earthquake, all the while negotiating a contentious and sometimes hostile relationship with the native people. Like so many of McCullough's subjects, they let no obstacle deter or defeat them. Drawn in great part from a rare and all-but-unknown collection of diaries and letters by the key figures, The Pioneers is a uniquely American story of people whose ambition and courage led them to remarkable accomplishments. This is a revelatory and quintessentially American story, written with David McCullough's signature narrative energy.

"The Bentley family is peculiar indeed. Twins Eliza and Leander and their parents always seem to know more, dream more, and do more than the other families in town. When they decide to head west toward promise of the unknown, every day becomes a new adventure. But when one wild night causes Eliza to lose her most precious possession, it seems to curse the entire Oregon Trail. Could a thirteen-year-old girl be the downfall of the pioneers?"--Provided by publisher.

Examines the lives of men who chose to make their lives in the American frontier, drawing from letters, diaries, and memoirs to illuminate the experiences of homesteaders, outlaws and lawmen, farmers, doctors, Native Americans and others who experienced the challenges of pioneer life.

A biography of frontiersman, soldier, and Congressman Davy Crockett.

Los jo?venes lectores explorara?n la vida como un pionero y aprender lo que significa vivir en Estados Unidos hoy. Tambie?n se incluyen las hermosas fotografi?as y mapas y textos claros y divertido.

Provides information about the westward expansion of the United States in the 1800s, looks at some of the reasons why people moved to the frontier and what it was like to travel the Oregon Trail and other routes, and introduces some of the people who played key roles in the movement.

A biography of Mary Jemison, the daughter of Irish immigrants who arrived in America in 1743, was captured by a Shawnee war party at the age of twelve, and was subsequently given to the Seneca tribe with whom she chose to remain the rest of her life.

Relates the experiences of the Texas woman who, along with her baby, survived the 1836 massacre at the Alamo.

Relates episodes from the life of Daniel Boone, a talented hunter and woodsman who helped explore the American West.

Tells the story of frontiersman Daniel Boone's capture in 1778 by Shawnee warriors who adopted him into the tribe where he remained until, fearing for the safety of his family and friends, he staged a daring escape.