Editorial Content for The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America
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Reviewer (text)
Many readers may not be aware that legendary pioneer and frontiersman Daniel Boone had a daughter who at one point was equally as famous, but for all the wrong reasons.
Matthew Pearl, stepping into the realm of narrative nonfiction for the first time, provides readers with a “Cast of Characters” flow chart at the start of the book, which makes it easy to keep track of the myriad of names that follow. In the prologue, he states that 13-year-old Jemima Boone’s kidnapping was not a stand-alone moment but part of a chain reaction that included another abduction, all-out military combat, and a courtroom drama that effectively put these preceding events on trial. THE TAKING OF JEMIMA BOONE addresses all of these occurrences.
"Matthew Pearl’s research is impressive, and his branching off into narrative nonfiction storytelling is a huge hit. I hope we haven’t seen the last of this kind of work from him."
Jemima is such a great character that you would swear she was a fictional creation and not a flesh-and-blood young woman. The Boones had led the way to Kentucky before the Revolutionary War as they balanced a desire to stake out a new phase of life against portents of violence, which were often ignored. On the afternoon of July 14, 1776, a mere 10 days after America’s Independence Day, Jemima and sisters Betsy and Fanny Callaway went for a canoe ride. Ironically, the trio’s fathers --- Daniel Boone and Richard Callaway --- were real-life adversaries, but the friction between them did not seem to negatively impact the friendship of their daughters. Following the girls' abduction, the finger-pointing between Boone and Callaway began, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.
The trouble between the American settlers and the Indian tribes can be traced back most recently to an incident known as Lord Dunmore’s War. When Hanging Maw, who was guiding a group of Shawnee braves, saw the opportunity to enact some revenge, he took it in the form of snatching up the three young ladies. He was laughingly quoted as saying, “We have done pretty well for old Boone this time --- got all his young squaws.”
Boone launched a strategic plan to get the girls back. Jemima knew in her heart that her father was the one man who was fit and able enough to rescue them. They were told by their captors that they were being brought to Shawnee towns. At that point they realized they were either going to lose their lives in a revenge ritual or call to war, or be chosen as “adoptees” for the tribe as replacements for those killed in combat or murdered in cold blood. Supposedly Hanging Maw fancied Jemima, which may be the primary reason they were kept alive.
The girls were eventually rescued but not without major consequences. Many times I felt like I was reading a work of fiction from James Fennimore Cooper, in which the role of Daniel Boone was played by Natty “Hawkeye” Bumppo. Matthew Pearl’s research is impressive, and his branching off into narrative nonfiction storytelling is a huge hit. I hope we haven’t seen the last of this kind of work from him.
Teaser
On a quiet midsummer day in 1776, 13-year-old Jemima Boone and her friends Betsy and Fanny Callaway disappear near the Kentucky settlement of Boonesboro. A Cherokee-Shawnee raiding party has taken the girls as the latest salvo in the blood feud between American Indians and the colonial settlers who have decimated native lands and resources. Hanging Maw, the raiders’ leader, recognizes one of the captives as Jemima Boone, daughter of Kentucky's most influential pioneers, and realizes she could be a valuable pawn in the battle to drive the colonists out of the contested Kentucky territory for good. But ultimately the raiding party is ambushed by Daniel Boone and the rescuers in a battle with reverberations that nobody could predict.
Promo
On a quiet midsummer day in 1776, 13-year-old Jemima Boone and her friends Betsy and Fanny Callaway disappear near the Kentucky settlement of Boonesboro. A Cherokee-Shawnee raiding party has taken the girls as the latest salvo in the blood feud between American Indians and the colonial settlers who have decimated native lands and resources. Hanging Maw, the raiders’ leader, recognizes one of the captives as Jemima Boone, daughter of Kentucky's most influential pioneers, and realizes she could be a valuable pawn in the battle to drive the colonists out of the contested Kentucky territory for good. But ultimately the raiding party is ambushed by Daniel Boone and the rescuers in a battle with reverberations that nobody could predict.
About the Book
In his first work of narrative nonfiction, Matthew Pearl, the bestselling author of the acclaimed novel THE DANTE CLUB, explores the little-known true story of the kidnapping of legendary pioneer Daniel Boone’s daughter and the dramatic aftermath that rippled across the nation.
On a quiet midsummer day in 1776, weeks after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, 13-year-old Jemima Boone and her friends Betsy and Fanny Callaway disappear near the Kentucky settlement of Boonesboro, the echoes of their faraway screams lingering on the air.
A Cherokee-Shawnee raiding party has taken the girls as the latest salvo in the blood feud between American Indians and the colonial settlers who have decimated native lands and resources. Hanging Maw, the raiders’ leader, recognizes one of the captives as Jemima Boone, daughter of Kentucky's most influential pioneers, and realizes she could be a valuable pawn in the battle to drive the colonists out of the contested Kentucky territory for good.
With Daniel Boone and his posse in pursuit, Hanging Maw devises a plan that could ultimately bring greater peace both to the tribes and the colonists. But after the girls find clever ways to create a trail of clues, the raiding party is ambushed by Boone and the rescuers in a battle with reverberations that nobody could predict. As Matthew Pearl reveals, the exciting story of Jemima Boone’s kidnapping vividly illuminates the early days of America’s westward expansion, and the violent and tragic clashes across cultural lines that ensue.
In this enthralling narrative in the tradition of Candice Millard and David Grann, Matthew Pearl unearths a forgotten and dramatic series of events from early in the Revolutionary War that opens a window into America’s transition from colony to nation, with the heavy moral costs incurred amid shocking new alliances and betrayals.
Audiobook available, read by Jeremy Arthur
