THE FIGHTING FRONTIERSMAN THE LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE BOOK REPORT BY SAMANTHA SELMAN 03/26/08

When Daniel was a small child his parents moved to the Yadkin Valley in North Carolina, where Daniel lived most of his early life. Just to the north of the valley, a group of Indians lived, and Daniel often wondered about them. Then, when he became older, he became a wagoner in the French and Indian War until marrying his wife, Rebecca. Soon after marrying Rebecca, Daniel and his brother Squire Boone began their adventure to Kentucky. Daniel and Squire had many close encounters with the Indians, and were even captured by them a few times. You may ask why they would risk their lives venturing into Indian territory. It is because they wanted land, money, and adventure. After Daniel Boone had made settlement in Kentucky there was a series of Indian attacks. The Indians must have thought that Boonesborough could have easily been defeated, since there were not many white men living at the settlement. These men were tough, so tough that one of them could easily wipe out over ten of these Indian warriors. Even though these men seemed fearless, they were not. Many attacks left the families stranded inside their houses without food or water, they could not go out to hunt or fetch water from the river. During one of his hunting trips, Boone was captured by a band of Indians. Luckily, the Indians respected him. This was very rare. He was adopted by Blackfish, Chief of the Shawnee Indians . He was treated well, but started to feel "home sick" and went back to Boonesborough. After his escape, the Indians planned to wipe out Boonesborough. The plan failed once again. After the Indian raid, the white men followed the trail. Daniel knew this was a bad idea. There was a battle at the Blue Licks, where Boone's son had died of an Indian tomahawk. Even though his son did not escape, Boone and some of his men escaped the Blue Licks unharmed. Despite the fact that both sides were tough, there were many men that died at the Blue Licks that day. After many of their men died, the Indians didn't give up on trying to get back Kentucky. One evening, Daniel's step daughter, Jemima and two of her friends took a boat ride down the river. They didn't know at one end of the river a band of Indians were waiting for them. They were kidnapped by the Indians, but they left signs so that their fathers or fiances could find them. Boone had terrific tracking skills and he located the girls the next morning. The girls escaped with their lives and married their fiances the next month.

At the beginning of the 1800s, Immigrants began to move into Kentucky. But Boone needed "elbow room" so he moved to St. Louis, Missouri because his son claimed "the hunting is good and there is plenty of elbow room". Sadly, Boone died while visiting his son in 1820 at the age of 86 years old. Today we remember Boone as a great hunter, an adventurer, and a fighting frontiersman.