Boone, a Biography, by Robert Morgan

"Boone: A Biography," by Robert Morgan. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. 2007. 538 pps. $29.95.

By Deirdre Parker Smith

Salisbury Post

Robert Morgan's new biography of Daniel Boone, titled simply enough, "Boone" disproves many myths about the man and reveals the complex truth of his mythical figure.

Morgan sums it up at the end of chapter 14: "It was Boone's habit, and his destiny, to keep moving toward a future of risk and unlimited potential."

No, he never wore a coonskin cap, and he looked nothing like actor Fess Parker. He was about 5-foot-8, powerfully built, and preferred a beaver hat in the Quaker style to keep his head warm and dry.

He killed bears for food, mostly, and deer for their hides. He was first and foremost, a woodsman who loved nothing better than his solitary hours hunting and exploring.

While he was a great leader, he was an awful businessman, not caring or paying any attention to details. He was often in debt, and sometimes moved to avoid business deals gone bad.

Mostly, he yearned to live free, one with the land, as the Indians did. He was kidnapped and adopted by the Shawnee; he may have had an Indian wife for a short time. He only remembered killing one Indian, point blank, and much preferred peace to fighting, although he was a brave man.

He greatly admired the Indian way, their freedom, their respect for the land, for the buffalo and deer. His son, Israel, was shot and killed during a brutal conflict with many tribes over the incursion of the white man into Kentucky.

For those who accused him of being an Indian sympathizer, it was hard to understand his deep respect of the native peoples.

Some accused him of siding with the British during the Revolutionary War, but again, Boone was a complex man. He knew how to play his enemies to gain advantages in later encounters.

The myth and the man

Morgan obviously has a deep respect for the man, and his treatment of the many legends and lies uses the most authentic sources available, including a great deal that Boone's youngest son, Nathan, told to biographer Lyman Draper in 1851.

Morgan discounts many of Boone's detractors, blaming jealousy as one of the motivating factors in their negative views. He's probably right. In the frontier, Boone was unlike anyone else. He had an uncanny intuition about man and nature. Although he was not a military man, he was brilliant in battle, anticipating the next move of his opponents and knowing exactly how the Indians fought.

Robert Morgan

Boone preferred living off the land, hunting, trapping for fur, raising a crop of corn for his animals. But as the country filled with settlers, he adapted to become a land surveyor, scout, trail blazer; he even served in the legislature, although he had little enthusiasm for the job.

Morgan also pays homage to Boone's wife, Rebecca, a woman who matched Boone's determination and drive. Rebecca was not an explorer, but she raised nine of her own children, as well as many other family members. She didn't just keep the home fires burning while Boone was in the woods, she raised the crops, maintained various frontier cabins, and taught her children survival skills. She was strong enough to survive and even thrive while her husband was gone and moved repeatedly with him, from Florida to Missouri, into the wildly dangerous frontier of Kentucky.

Boone's children also grow some flesh and blood, particularly daughter Jemima, who had much of her father in her, and sons James, Israel and Nathan.

Place in history

Morgan introduces numerous historical figures, some better known than others, putting Boone into a larger context than a cabin in the woods.

Many readers may not realize that Daniel Boone, born in 1734, was an important figure before the American Revolution. To Boone, the Revolution was distant, being fought more than 600 miles away. It was not until the British enlisted the anger of the Indian tribes being pushed West that Boone became involved.

Again, Morgan serves history well by telling this lesser known aspect of the Revolution. Although some Indian tribes could be brutal, torturing, scalping and burning their prisoners, others, like the Shawnee, often adopted the people they captured. Chief Blackfish adopted Boone and treated him like a son, raising suspicions that Boone might betray the settlers at Boonesborough. But he used what he learned from the Shawnee to defend the fort when it was besieged.

George Washington was only two years older than Boone; Abraham Lincoln, the president's grandfather, knew Boone in Kentucky. While in France, Thomas Jefferson read the first published account of Boone's adventures.

Famous by his 50s, Boone was known throughout America and on the European continent. His exploits drew great admiration and his legend grew.

The truth was, by his 50s, Boone's greatest years were behind him. As he explored the wilderness he loved, he opened it up to more people, and soon, the wilderness was crowded, at least for Boone. Turning from hunting and trapping to land surveying, running a store and tavern and service in the militia and various levels of government, he lost the best parts of himself.

Boone's true nature

Morgan writes: "Boone's world was the wilderness, and the families at the edge of the wilderness. Almost all his best work was done in the woods. The forest was the meeting place between white and Indian culture, where the two worlds challenged each other and mingled, mirrored, and merged. Boone's genius was at its best in that complex. evolving zone, part Indian, part white, mostly natural. While he claimed to have never been lost in the woods, he was often lost when he came out of the woods, into politics, law courts, commercial enterprise. He was at home with trees around him, and animals and stars, and Indians. He lost his way where the trace became a turnpike, the trail became a street. The town was a foreign country."

Morgan eloquently puts Boone into the world, discussing everything from his religious influences (born a Quaker, he turned to Freemasonry) to the writers he influenced. Lord Byron portrayed Boone as General Boone in "Don Juan" in 1822. James Fenimore Cooper used Boone as a model for Natty Bumpo in "Deerslayer." Even Emerson and Thoreau were emulating Boone in their wilderness experiences.

Morgan has exhaustively indexed his book and provides copious notes at the end, supporting his statements with thorough research. His bibliography alone could cover several college courses, showing that this biography is not only well-written but valuable as a reference work and a piece of history in and of itself.

Most people forgot Boone's failures and exaggerated his successes, but as Morgan writes the story, Boone was a man deserving of awe and praise, an icon and a very real human being, flaws and all, far more interesting than his television caricature.

Book signing

Robert Morgan will be at Literary Bookpost, 119 S. Main St., on Monday, 5-7 p.m., for a reception and book signing.

Morgan is also the author of "Gap Creek," which was chosen for Oprah's book club.

A North Carolina native, he now teaches at Cornell University in New York.

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Contact Deirdre Parker Smith at dp1@salisburypost.com or 704-797-4252.