The Abduction and Rescue of Jemima Boone

The Abduction and Rescue of Jemima Boone

This episode relates the experiences of Jemima Boone and two of her friends when they were kidnapped by a band of Shawnee and Cherokee warriors on July 14, 1775. Her father, Daniel Boone responded by assembling a group of men to mount a rescue mission.
From the Book
A Day in United States History – Book 1

Transcript:
The Abduction and Rescue of Jemima Boone

Greetings, this episode relates the experiences of Jemima Boone and two of her friends when they were kidnapped by a band of Shawnee and Cherokee warriors on July 14, 1775. Her father, Daniel Boone responded by assembling a group of men to mount a rescue mission.

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An Amerindian raiding party consisting of four Shawnee and one Cherokee overcame a group of three girls as they drifted on the Kentucky River, capturing them.
The Scene
News of the turmoil on the eastern coast of the British colonies had not yet created any tension on the newly settled Kentucky frontier. There had been no incidents for over a year at the new settlement of Boonesborough. The settlers relaxed. Some took the time to plant additional crops. On a warm Sunday afternoon, three girls decided to go for a canoe ride on the river. Jemima Boone, daughter of Daniel and Rebecca Boone, in company with Elizabeth and Frances Calloway, the daughters of James and Elizabeth Hoy Calloway basked in the warm July sun as they enjoyed their Sunday afternoon excursion on July 14, 1775. The canoe drifted downstream, close to the dangerous western bank, where a native raiding party watched. The girls had seen some flowers growing along the bank and wanted to gather some.
The Natives
The Cherokee and Shawnee had resisted the Americans as they expanded their dominions into the native’s hunting grounds, Kentucky. The raids into the new settlements had been infrequent, but bloody when they occurred. When American settlement began in late Eighteenth Century, there were few permanent native settlements in Kentucky. The Shawnee, who mainly inhabited the Ohio River Valley north of the river, and the Cherokee to the southeast, used the region as a common hunting ground. In the summer, the tribes planted and harvested their crops of maize, beans and squash in their semi permanent settlements, harvesting them in the fall. In winter, the tribes moved into temporary quarters in the Kentucky region to hunt game for meat and clothing. Thus, the Americans were encroaching on an important food supply for the native tribes. Native resistance to settlement would be violent and frequent in the years to come. The abduction of the girls signaled an escalation of Amerindian resistance.

The five natives sprang from their hiding places close to the rivers and surrounded the girl’s canoe. The girls screamed in alarm and tried to beat their attackers off with their paddles. Their efforts were futile, as the warriors soon overcame them and took them away.

The natives, after threatening the girls with knives and tomahawks, proceeded with haste away from the scene. Jemima’s foot had been injured in the fight and proved a hindrance. One of the natives gave her some moccasins to speed her progress. They cut the girl’s skirts away to the knees to make it easier to run. Jemima and the other girls tried to counter the warriors efforts to deceive the pursuit they knew would come by breaking twigs and leaving small shreds of cloth. The warriors noted these tactics and threatened to kill them if they persisted. By nightfall, the party camped about seven miles from the scene of the abduction. Afraid of detection from pursuers, the party camped without building a cooking fire. The warriors fed the girls dried venison. In the morning, the natives retrieved a pony they had hidden and wanted the girls to ride it. The girls further delayed the warrior’s progress by using their feet to tickle the pony causing him to rear up. This threw the girls off, further delaying their progress. Enraged, the natives abandoned the pony and continued on foot with the girls towards the Ohio River and the safety of their camps there. The second night, convinced they had eluded their pursuers, the warriors again made camp. The killed a buffalo, laid their weapons aside and built a cook fire. The girls despaired that they would not be rescued. The younger girls, Jemima and Fannie, cried most of the time. Nightfall came on the second day after their abduction.

Both Daniel Boone and Frances Calloway were absent from the settlement and did not return until evening. The men immediately sprang into action.

Boone and Calloway quickly assembled two parties of men, one led by Boone on foot, another led by Calloway on horseback. Setting off at first light on Monday morning, Boone hoped to track them through the countryside; Calloway wanted to head them off at the ford on the Licking River. At dark, Boone and his party, attracted by a barking dog, arrived at a cabin where nine men were building a cabin. They elected to stay the night there. By morning, after some of the men building the cabin elected to join them, they set off again in pursuit. The natives had employed various techniques to throw off the trackers. The trackers used tricks they knew to thwart the deceptions.

Boone and his party happened on the party as the warriors, confident of their success at eluding their pursuers, tended their fire. Surprised and without their weapons, the warriors leaped to their feet. Boone and his companions shot and killed two of them as the others took flight into the forest. The men rescued the girls unharmed.
The tale of the girl’s rescue was one of many that prompted Boone’s reputation to rise and to his becoming an American frontier legend.

Written in a “this day in history,” format, each of the two books in this collection of North American colonial history events includes 366 history stories. The historical collection of tales includes many well-known as well as some little-known events in the saga of the United States. The easy to follow “this day in history,” format covers a wide range of the people, places and events of early American history. I is the first book in my series, 366 Days in History Series. Each book includes 366 stories of American history. It is availble, with many of my other titles on gardening, Indiana places and history and United States History, at the Walnut Street Variety Shop in downtown Batesville, Indiana.
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