ohio river valley

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.

". . . 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"--Provided by publisher.

In 1755, after the death of his father, fifteen-year-old Patrick Egan and his uncle accompany the military force of aide-de-camp George Washington and British General Braddock as it journeys to fight the French and their Indian allies at Fort Duquesne in the Ohio River Valley.

Ben, a bay sabino horse, acts heroically when the wagon train his boss is leading from Ohio to the Illinois Territory runs into trouble at Flynn's Ferry Crossing. Includes facts about bay sabino horses.

A biography of the Shawnee warrior, orator, and leader who united a confederacy of Indians in an effort to save Indian land from the advance of white soldiers and settlers.

Recreates events which actually occurred in the opening up of the Northwest Territory in the period 1700 to 1900 based on written documents.

Lost in the Ohio River Valley in May 1793, twelve-year-old Clare and her two brothers struggle to survive in the wilderness and to avoid capture by the Shawnee Indians.

Explores the nature of the white settlers of the Western frontier borderlands during the Revolutionary War era, arguing that the battles waged between whites and Native Americans played a key role in the quest for independence, but also set the stage for an ongoing tradition of racial intolerance in the U.S.

Presents the history of the Shawnee, discussing their culture and how they have lived, including their relationship with early settlers and the present-day United States government.