Boone - The Early Years
Copyright© 2016 by Ernest Bywater
Foreword
Foreword
This story is a bit different to what I usually write. It’s written in US English spelling because all of the characters, and thus the narrator too, are US born characters. It’s set in the mid 1800s, but I’m not going to use the slang and speech style of the period, mainly due to the story covering a number of dialect areas where I’ve not the knowledge or the experience to get them all correct. Rather than get most of it wrong I think it’s better to just write it using today’s English and to warn you all about it first.
There is one chapter I expect some people will be upset about what I have to say in it. A large part of it is from the information in original source documents of the time, and part of it is from the analysis of the source records by later historians. Some parts are a rephrasing of the opinions of people from that time, or later, as stated in the documents written by them. There are a few straight forward facts, and they’re presented as facts in some of the story dialogue of those discussing the events of the time. Over the years these facts have been interpreted in many ways by a lot of different people, usually their interpretation is biased toward their personal belief. The way I present them is my opinion of how they should be interpreted, and it is as valid as any other interpretation. So, please, if you disagree with some of the points made about the old politics in the story don’t send me an email claiming I’m wrong. Just accept it’s my opinion and you disagree with it.
The reason for including the political discussion is to provide a solid background for how some of the characters think and act in a way different to how some people would expect them to. It’s there to tell you why some act one way and some act another, due to the depth of their feelings about the differences of their opinions on those matters. It’s also there because the politics shaped the way events happened at that time.
The story starts in Lexington, Virginia, USA, and it stays there until they move to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, while on the way to go west. Then the story moves west. I’ve made a point to include the states when I mention most towns because one of my editors had some confusion as to what states the characters were in due to towns of similar names in a number of different states, so the state is in the narrative with the town.