Summary

“Difficult Times” describes the various problems which arise in Marietta, at the ‘frontier,’ as McCullough calls it. Through the complaints of one settler named Ichabod Nye, the reader encounters the challenges of frontier life: food shortages were constant and a real threat to life, and harsh winters ruined crops. Death came from all avenues, whether from childbirth, smallpox, measles, or other diseases, or from the attacks of natives, as one large raid on a settlement just outside of Marietta resulted in fourteen deaths. General Putnam, who had long been expecting trouble of this sort, wrote to George Washington to beg for protection and aid, while attempts to fend off natives resulted in very few deaths on the natives’ side and many deaths on the side of the settlers. 1789 was a year of a great deal of hunger, as there was very...