Helpful Score: 2
This is Book 1 of Eckert's Narratives of America, based on the true history of American Indians and their tug-of-war with white settlers. In this wonderful, fiction-enhanced account of our westward expansion, you can't help becoming caught up in the page-turner while learning some amazing things about the Shawnee Indians.
Donna W. (shooter38) reviewed The Frontiersmen (Narratives of America, Bk 1) on + 63 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This time period in history is my favorite. This is a fast moving book that kept my interest to the end. There is today controversy as to whether "Blue Jacket" of the Shawnee was really a white man or not. Another good book by Eckert is "That Dark and Bloody River" I live about 2 hours from Pittsburgh and this book covers areas I am familiar with.
From the book cover, "THE INTERPRETER is the story of Conrad Weiser, the pioneer who led the German colonists from New York to Pennsylvania where they could live free of British rule. During the French and Indian War, Weiser's story intertwines with the Mohawk warrior, Hendrick Forked-Paths, and the shaman, Island Woman, whose dreams are magical and portentious. Robert Moss brings alive a world of wonders and horrors, dreams and visions, love and strife, in a powerful novel of the crucible in which America was formed."
Ronald M. (Fasturtle) reviewed The Frontiersmen (Narratives of America, Bk 1) on + 593 more book reviews
Very informative book about the early United States and it's taking more land from the Indians.
Joan G. (despinne) reviewed The Frontiersmen (Narratives of America, Bk 1) on + 59 more book reviews
I read this book after the ones Allan Eckert wrote about New York and William Johnson (Wilderness Empire, Gateway to Empire, etc.). However, this one seems most interesting because it takes place on the Ohio-Kentucky-Pennsylvania frontier, where, over the course of the lifetime of Simon Kenton, Western Virginia--including parts of what is now Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee -- was settled by pioneers, people just like you and me. Despite the hard work and trials and attacks by indians, the settlers carved out places in the woods and built cities, towns, homes, farms, and raised families.
Not only that, but several in my own family moved from Grantsville, Md., to Akron, Ohio, and other towns in the early 1940s or late 1930s to work in the tire factories and other automotive plants, in the very places where hard-won battles were fought over the land by the early pioneers and the Shawnees. Grantsville is still a small town--the kind you can throw a rock through--on both sides of the National Road (Rt 40). It was settled by former soldiers given land there as payment for their service after the Revolutionary War, plots with names like "Bumblebee Road," "Cornucopia," and "Bill Beitzel Road." The land was good, but Kentucky and Ohio were better--unlike the mountains, there were no rocks and the land was flat. History resounded on Negro Mountain, where George Washington and his men hid a grievously wounded Negro soldier under a huge rock so the indians would not find him and torture him, then fled for their lives, never to return. I looked for that rock--I donno where it was, but I was on a farm on the side of the mountain. There were a lot of big rocks there.
Frontiersman will take you back to these lands before they began to make history, before there was a United States of America. And Simon Kenton, the hero, led the way. He brought settlers to the trans-Allegheny West, helped them find and mark out and build homes and farms. He hunted and fed them. He could RUN to visit Dan'l Boone in Kaintuck in a couple of days--it would take us a full day in a car! Those heros were spectacular, worth the tales still told about them.
Not only that, but several in my own family moved from Grantsville, Md., to Akron, Ohio, and other towns in the early 1940s or late 1930s to work in the tire factories and other automotive plants, in the very places where hard-won battles were fought over the land by the early pioneers and the Shawnees. Grantsville is still a small town--the kind you can throw a rock through--on both sides of the National Road (Rt 40). It was settled by former soldiers given land there as payment for their service after the Revolutionary War, plots with names like "Bumblebee Road," "Cornucopia," and "Bill Beitzel Road." The land was good, but Kentucky and Ohio were better--unlike the mountains, there were no rocks and the land was flat. History resounded on Negro Mountain, where George Washington and his men hid a grievously wounded Negro soldier under a huge rock so the indians would not find him and torture him, then fled for their lives, never to return. I looked for that rock--I donno where it was, but I was on a farm on the side of the mountain. There were a lot of big rocks there.
Frontiersman will take you back to these lands before they began to make history, before there was a United States of America. And Simon Kenton, the hero, led the way. He brought settlers to the trans-Allegheny West, helped them find and mark out and build homes and farms. He hunted and fed them. He could RUN to visit Dan'l Boone in Kaintuck in a couple of days--it would take us a full day in a car! Those heros were spectacular, worth the tales still told about them.
Joannie N. (Nedheadz) reviewed The Frontiersmen (Narratives of America, Bk 1) on + 128 more book reviews
An historical narrative that flows quickly and wows the reader with adventure... real adventure that happened here!
There were a lot of events going during the 1770's that amazes you that the revolution occurred and was successful. I've visited many revolutionary war historical sites and am insterested in this period of our history, but was somewhat ignorant of the political intriques, boundary disputes and other challenges for the new nation that were going on concurrently to the revolution. This story is a great gap filler.
There's great accounts of the struggles between the white settlers and Shawnee nation. One group fighting to create a new home and one fighting to save their homes. Righteous cruelty??????? I think not, but emotions motivate poor decisions.
I've thoroughly enjoyed this novel and am eager to read the rest of the series.
There were a lot of events going during the 1770's that amazes you that the revolution occurred and was successful. I've visited many revolutionary war historical sites and am insterested in this period of our history, but was somewhat ignorant of the political intriques, boundary disputes and other challenges for the new nation that were going on concurrently to the revolution. This story is a great gap filler.
There's great accounts of the struggles between the white settlers and Shawnee nation. One group fighting to create a new home and one fighting to save their homes. Righteous cruelty??????? I think not, but emotions motivate poor decisions.
I've thoroughly enjoyed this novel and am eager to read the rest of the series.
