Boone, Daniel
Born November 2, 1734
Exeter Township, Berks County, near
present-day Reading, Pennsylvania
Died September 26, 1820
Near St. Charles, Missouri
Frontiersman
"Even in his own time the tale of Boone's role as the leader of colonists migrating through the Cumberland Gap into the Kentucky territories had begun to assume larger-than-life status. Boone came to be considered the consummate symbol of the American pioneer."
J. Gray Sweeney, in The Columbus of the Woods: Daniel Boone and the Typology of Manifest Destiny
Daniel Boone is considered the most famous American frontiersman in history. He guided settlers to establish the first American settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains in present-day Kentucky. At the time of Boone's early adventures, Native Americans vigorously defended their homeland west of the Appalachian Mountains against the encroaching waves of white settlers. Boone's efforts to carve out settlements in what he called "the dark and bloody ground" of Kentucky came to symbolize American efforts to tame the West, according to J. Gray Sweeney in The Columbus of the Woods.
Artist George Caleb Bingham captured Boone's legend in one of the most enduring images of the great man, Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap. In the portrait, Boone is illustrated leading a group of settlers over a stormy mountain pass into a lush valley.
This is a free page. This page contains 201 words. This
article contains 1,633 words (approx. 5 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Boone, Daniel Access Pass.
