Donna Hechler Porter

In September of 1778 the isolated outpost of Fort Boonesborough in Caintuck Land, with less than 100 inhabitants and only 35 or so fighting men, faced a war party of over 400 Shawnee Indians. Along with the warriors were French-turned-British officers trained in the art of warfare and sieges.

Although there were two other settlements in Kentucky, they were smaller than Boonesborough, and the nearest settlement to the Kentucky forts and stations was 200 miles to the east and that over a mountain range with only way in and one way out.

That day in September, within the picketed walls of Fort Boonesborough, Daniel Boone gave the settlers a choice – surrender or fight and face death. Boone assures those standing before him he will support their decision.
Assuredly, none of the settlers were thinking beyond the next few days. Their minds were full of how to save their lives and the lives of the others in the fort. None of them realized that their decision would play a major role in peace negotiations four years later at the end of the American Revolution.

But how did they get here? How did Boone and less than a hundred settlers find themselves facing a life and death decision that would later prove to be so invaluable to a young nation going to war?

To understand, one must always go back to the beginning . . .