3.25 ( )

The back cover blurb describes author Matthew Pearl as a novelist, with this book as his first venture into non-fiction. I found it pretty interesting. The gist of the situation is an event from 1776; Jemima Boone, the 13-year-old daughter of frontiersman Daniel Boone, was kidnapped/abducted/captured along with two of her girlfriends by a war party of mixed Cherokee and Shawnee. Boone organized a rescue party; the natives were ambushed (and some were killed) and Jemima and friends Betsy and Fanny Callaway were returned home safely. The capture and rescue take up only the first quarter or so of the book; the rest is a discussion of the multi-way politics between Native Americans, colonial governments, the British authorities, and rebellious settlers. I was particularly intrigued by the observation that the white settlers in Kentucky and the native Shawnee and Cherokee could be vicious, cruel enemies one day, engaged in a watchful “cold war” the next day, and valued trading partners and friends the day after that - and none of the parties involved found this situation remarkable. I’m reminded of a similar situation described in Lewis and Clark Among the Indians, where the Corps of Discovery was confused by similar complicated politics among the Hidatsa, Mandan, and Lakota.

An easy read, and quite enlightening. A genealogical chart of the participants. No maps, which is a handicap when trying to keep track of the movements of the various parties. No bibliography but references are incorporated into the endnotes.

A well written and easy reading account of the abduction of Daniel Boone's daughter and subsequent siege of Boonesboro. The author is not a specialist, hence many of his conclusions are at best speculative. Still, the storyline is presented in an interesting way that will appeal to readers.

One cannot generalize when it comes to the positions taken by the colonists, or the British and their Native American allies. All ultimately did what they believed served their best interests.

Nonetheless, the author inexplicably applies an apologetic gloss to Native American behavior and comes to some surprisingly unsubstantiated conclusions. One of the most glaring was his opinion that Shawnee chief Blackfish's goal in the siege of Boonesborough was to create a union of colonists and Native Americans living in peace and harmony. The record as to Blackfish is incredibly sparse, hence this is far more about the author's ideology than history. ( )

Matthew Pearl writes a very readable account of Jemima Boone's capture along with a couple other girls from the Boonesboro settlement in Kentucky as a starting point for telling the story of Daniel Boone's role in the settlement of Kentucky and of his relations with others in the settlement and with the Shawnee and Cherokee of the region. He separates the myth of the frontiersman from the reality in his well-documented tale. Like most non-fiction intended for a general audience, the story uses the terrible "blind endnote" feature where someone interested in the sources must keep a finger in the end notes and pay attention to words and phrases. (This is almost impossible to do when reading an ebook in which they are unlinked such as this one was.) Pearl used extensive manuscripts and archival sources from a variety of jurisdictions in his research. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Kentucky, particularly during its settlement as part of Virginia. ( )

The Taking of Jemima Boone by Matthew Pearl opens by examining the incident in 1776 where a daughter of Daniel Boone and two of her friends are captured by a group of Cherokee and Shawnee Indians. This was more than just three young girls being kidnapped because of who these girls were related to. When the Indians asked if the girls were sisters, Jemima said yes, thinking that there could be an advantage to having the Indians think that all three were related to the famous Boone.

The frontier unrest was due to the settlers pushing into Kentucky, which was considered sacred ground to a number of Indian tribes. The Indians could see their land was being whittled away as once the white people claimed the land, they immediately drove the Indians out. There were atrocities committed by both sides and the bitterness between white and Indian had been going on for years. This was at the time of the Revolutionary War and Daniel Boone was an important person on the frontier. He personally led a group to make the first settlement in Kentucky, and had the respect of other pioneers and the ear of important people in Washington. Hanging Maw, the leader of the raiding party, was pleased with this capture as he felt they could use these girls as leverage. His plan backfired, however, as Boone and his men caught up to the Indians, rescued the girls and killed a couple of the Indians. One of the Indians killed was the son of the famous war chief, Blackfish, and so the back and forth animosity continued on.

The author uses this incident to launch his account of how Daniel Boone, his fort entitled Boonesboro and the rest of the frontier settlements survived the next few years when they were fighting not only the Indians but the British who saw these frontiers as easy targets. Diplomacy and peace talks were thrown out and paranoia ran deep on all sides. The Taking of Jemima Boone is written in a knowledgeable and interesting manner. The author obviously did a lot of research and presents his facts in an engrossing manner which made for an exciting read. ( )