Samuel Forman - Ill-Fated Frontier: Peril and Possibilities in the Early American West

RESEARCH TOOK ME TO TEN STATES, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND more than three dozen libraries and historic sites. Their staffs were unfailingly helpful, knowledgeable, and welcoming. I acknowledge their support here:

In New England, I wish to recognize Peter Drummey of the Massachusetts Historical Society; Don Friary of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts; the staff of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society; J. Archer OReilly III of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati; Jeffrey Croteau of Scottish Rite Masonic Museums Library and Archives; Deborah Barlow Smedstad of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Library; Meghan Sullivan-Silva at the John Carter Brown Library of Brown University; and Ed Surato of the Whitney Library of the New Haven Historical Society. Harvards Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnography displays artifacts and modern interpretations of relevance to the Native American experience in the Old Northwest and preremoval Southeast. A Choctaw horsehair athletes collar became part inspiration for chapter 12s description of the 1790 Noxubee River ball game.

I thank for invaluable assistance Tammy Kiter at the New York Historical Society; John Cordovez, Tal Nadan, and Meredith Mann at the New York Public Librarys Manuscripts and Archives Division; Elisha Davies at the Cazenovia Public Library; Sharon Clooney and Jackie Roshia at Lorenzo State Historic Site in Cazenovia; and the staff of the New York State Archives in Albany. At the National Museum of the American Indian in Manhattan I was inspired by visually arresting artifacts and interpretation capturing a broad range of North American Indian nations.

In New Jersey I benefited from the assistance of Joe Zemla of the Monmouth County Historical Association and John McC. Shannon, Secretary of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati.

In Pennsylvania I acknowledge Linda August, Sarah Weatherwax, Connie King, and Krystal Appiah at the Library Company of Philadelphia; the staff of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Roy E. Goldman at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia; Katherine A. Ludwig and Meg McSweeney of the David Library of the American Revolution (since integrated into APS); the staff of the Lancaster County Historical Society; Shannon Schwaller, Tom Buffenbarger, and Rodney Foytik of the US Army War College Library and US Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle; Anita Zanke of the Westmoreland County Historical Society; and Jon Klosinski and chief librarian Mary E. Jones of the Detre Library at the John Heinz Regional History Center in Pittsburgh. Karie Diethorn and Courtney Christner of the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia lent expertise on a number of portraits.

In Washington, DC, I gratefully acknowledge Ellen McAllister Clark, Library Director, and Michele Lee Silverman of the American Revolution Institute at the Society of the Cincinnatis Anderson House and staff of the DC location of the National Archives and Records Administration. Paul Gardullo of the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History and Culture was enormously helpful for access to collections and introductions to relevant works. The National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall offers historical and contemporary displays surveying a broad range of North American Indian nations.

In Ohio I acknowledge Mr. Westmoreland, senior historian at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and the museums endeavors to educate modern Americans in creative ways about ante-bellum stories difficult to tell, and doing so as a basis for uniting all Americans. Their 1830 slave pen is a unique immersive exhibit of a commercial jail where African American slaves were aggregated and housed in advance of being driven in coffles 800 miles south along the Natchez Trace for sale in the slave markets at Natchez. We sat in silence on austere benches illuminated by tiny claustrophobia-inducing barred windows, among iron rings still protruding from rough timber walls. To paraphrase historian Edward Baptist, The half has never been told. I also appreciate introductions within the museum and to its mission by John Pepper, the former CEO and board chairman of Procter & Gamble and a consistent supporter of the creation and functioning of the museum. Others in the state facilitating my research were Katy Scullin and Linda Schowalter of Marietta College Legacy Librarys Special Collections; Anne B. Shepherd, Clasire Smittle, and MLissa Y. Kesterman of the Cincinnati Historical Society Library; and staff of the Cincinnati Public Library.

I enjoyed insightful correspondence with Jennie Cole at the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky, and with naturalist Paul Oligies of the Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center and State Park in Clarksville, Indiana. Unfortunately, I did not have the pleasure of visiting these Ohio River destinations in person.

Lori Bessler, Tom Farrell, and Lee Grady at the Wisconsin Historical Society answered my free-ranging inquiries about Lyman C. Draper, their founding figure and editor of Samuel S. Formans published travel accounts, and his collections.

I want to thank Dennis Northcott at the Missouri History Museum, Library and Research Center in St. Louis.

In Mississippi I benefited from the advice of Mary (Mimi) Miller of the Historic Natchez Foundation; Willie Hutchins and Hayden Kaiser Jr. at the Adams County Courthouse Chancery Archive; interpretive rangers Barney Schoby Jr. and Kathleen Bond of the National Park Services Melrose Plantation in Natchez; and Jim Woodrick of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson. Dr. David Conwill joined me on his home turf for deep dives at the Mississippi State Archives, and subsequently located copies of key long misplaced Spanish colonial estate records.

I am grateful to the many genealogists who preserved and made accessible the Forman family histories and source documentsHelen Lincklaen Fairchild (d. 1931) and Lyman C. Draper (d. 1891). Among the vibrant living, Winn Forman has been my go-to genealogist for his encyclopedic and discerning knowledge of the historic Formans.

Professor David Hackett Fischer made a number of suggestions on historiographic issues, and provided advice on the nature and significance of internal slave migrations in the Early Republic and the impact of infectious diseases on the colonization of the Delta South. He generously allowed me to review relevant chapters of his work-in-progress, Africas Gifts, exploring distinct African folkways carried over into the American experience.

Nathaniel Philbrick shared his insights into engagingly presenting popular history while maintaining a rigorous scholarly foundation. The thoughts he shared, based on his Mayflower and The Last Stand, increased my understanding of incorporating Native American sources and scholarship into accounts of colonial settler conflict on the frontiers.

Charlene Smith, South African expat and authorized biographer of Nelson Mandela, provided her views on preparing effective and affecting written descriptions of violence in nonfiction and history. I enjoyed conversing with her on topics as diverse as the Afrikaners Great Trek across the Transvaal and the postapartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Charles Weeks kindly offered advice along with pertinent draft chapters from his new book (with Christian Pinnen) about colonial Mississippi. Historian Michael Adelberg shared his knowledge of Revolutionary War-era Monmouth County and General David Forman.

David McCullough, author of Pioneers, has brought renewed attention and a broad audience to compelling sagas arising from the trans-Allegheny West of the Early Republic.

I reference several authors works frequently, and depend on them heavily, for important events occurring offstage of the Forman pioneers saga. I am grateful for secondary sources and the fruits of recent decades of scholarship on these topics, in addition to numerous works found in