Title: The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West by David McCullough
Book Beginnings quote:
Never before, as he knew, had any of his countrymen set off to accomplish anything like what he had agreed to undertake -- a mission that, should he succeed, could change the course of history in innumerable ways and to the long-lasting benefit of countless Americans.
Friday56 quote:
But as weeks passed, John May, like numbers of others, began discovering not all was perfection in the promised land by the Ohio. "Myriad of gnats" were eating them alive.
Summary:
As part of the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain recognized the new United States of America, Britain ceded the land that comprised the immense Northwest Territory, a wilderness empire northwest of the Ohio River containing the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. A Massachusetts minister named Manasseh Cutler was instrumental in opening this vast territory to veterans of the Revolutionary War and their families for settlement. Included in the Northwest Ordinance were three remarkable conditions: freedom of religion, free universal education, and most importantly, the prohibition of slavery. In 1788 the first band of pioneers set out from New England for the Northwest Territory under the leadership of Revolutionary War veteran General Rufus Putnam. They settled in what is now Marietta on the banks of the Ohio River.
McCullough tells the story through five major characters: Cutler and Putnam; Cutler’s son Ephraim; and two other men, one a carpenter turned architect, and the other a physician who became a prominent pioneer in American science. They and their families created a town in a primeval wilderness, while coping with such frontier realities as floods, fires, wolves and bears, no roads or bridges, no guarantees of any sort, all the while negotiating a contentious and sometimes hostile relationship with the native people. Like so many of McCullough’s subjects, they let no obstacle deter or defeat them. (From the book jacket.)
Review: I am a woman of two minds about this book. First, I am a fan of David McCullough. He is a first-rate historian and excellent writer. This book is a testament to his skills at both research and writing. (As proof there are around 80 pages of chapter notes and an exhaustive bibliography listed.) But, perhaps, there was too much a good thing -- so many details, characters, settings -- it was hard to keep everything straight in my mind.
As a resident of the Pacific Northwest (Washington State) I confess that I had expectations for the book based on my own experiences. Namely, when we speak of pioneers in our history classes we are talking about those who traveled the Oregon Trail all the way across the country or those who came on the Mormon migration west to Utah a few years later. I've never once thought of those Americans who traveled from Massachusetts to Ohio territory as pioneers. And to call Ohio the "Northwest" was confusing to me. How can a state in the eastern-middle of the country be the northwest, as they referred to it? Even after I started reading the book I kept expecting McCullough to not just talk about the settlement of Ohio and the pioneers who settled there, but to continue the theme of 'pioneers" moving on west. Clearly I hadn't read the book jacket carefully or I would have known that this book could easily have been titled "Ohio."
The story is told with a focus on five men and their families. It took a good half of the book before I settled into that format and found myself interested in their lives and experiences, however. Many of the gals in book club confessed to giving up on the book before that point.
Speaking of book club, we had a fairly good discussion, considering there were no questions provided by the publisher to aid us. I quipped that was probably because no one in their right mind would pick such a book for a club meeting. The one question that did get us going related to the book and what we found surprising, interesting, or educational. I was surprised at how often the men remarked about the President of the United States (whoever it was at the time: Jefferson, Madison, Andrew Jackson) being men they didn't like or respect. Gee, where have we heard that before? Could it be today? One of the men, a grandson of one of the original pioneers, even wrote about how he was upset that so many stupid people were trying to run the country and therefore he ran for the state legislature as a member of the Whig party. Mr. Cutler was concerned about making sure that everyone could attend school, even if it meant higher taxes. That, too, made me think of today.
Another question, which we discussed at length, related to the terrible treatment of indigenous people in the territory. By the end of the pioneer period, the only thing "Indian" left were the names of places. We decided even though McCullough used primary documents, he certainly did not seem to give much of his research time toward reporting on what the original people thought or felt when the pioneers arrived and succeeded in pushing them out. We all agreed that has been a big problem with our history textbooks -- one-sided stories. Alas! 😞
My husband, who listened to about half of the audiobook with me, remarked that the history of the formation of Ohio and other states in the upper mid-west, was never part of our curriculum in school. We are both glad that we read it for that purpose but it is unlikely that I will recommend the book to anyone outside of hard core history buffs.
-Anne
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