The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen (2018–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Never Surrender - full transcript

Across thousands of brutal,
untamed miles..

...a different breed
of founding fathers

fight a revolution... all
their own.

Fire!

For more than 70 years..

...they push into the unknown.

...driven by the hope
that this vast land

holds a fortune
that could be theirs..

...if... they survive.

They fight for a dream..

...to transform a wilderness
into a nation..



...the United States
of America.

Deep in the vast,
uncharted wilderness

known as the Kentucky Territory

Daniel Boone is running
for his life.

He's spent
the last two years here

hunting and fur trapping

but he's on land claimed
by the Shawnee Tribe.

And now, their warriors are hunting him.

By the early 1770s

only a handful
of non-natives have dared

to venture this far west.

Those that do find both danger...
and opportunity.

The allure of the frontier
is it's a place

where people who have nothing



could go and make a lot of money

trapping beaver and river otter

and hunting for deer hides.

Our term today, like,
when you say a dollar or a buck

a buck comes from
the value of a deer hide.

At the same time,
you're in constant danger

of being killed.

And there's always
a very good chance

that you could fail
catastrophically.

Boone's lucky to be alive

but every pelt
he planned to sell

to feed his family is gone

and he returns home
to North Carolina in debt.

In 1773, North Carolina

is one of 13 British colonies

ruled by King George III.

Ten years earlier,
he made it illegal for colonists

to permanently settle west
of the Appalachians

though hunting was permitted.

That area is home to over
two million Native Americans

from over 300 competing tribes.

And Britain wants
no trouble with them.

The crown's restriction

infuriates colonists
eager for land.

And it doesn't stop men

like North Carolina judge

Richard Henderson.

He's just bought
20 million acres

nearly the whole area
of modern Kentucky.

He plans to profit
by selling it to settlers

and he doesn't care
what law he breaks

or if it's claimed
by Native American tribes.

I think people were tired

of constant rules
and regulations.

Americans wanted
to strike it rich.

They wanted, uh,
to make a killing

in land and real estate.

The American frontier
always meant dollar signs.

Some of the great famous names
of the American Revolution

Ben Franklin, George Washington

were engaged in buying up land in the West.

But you still have, of course,
the Native American tribes

who were not
about to just accept

all these Americans flooding
over the Appalachian Mountains.

If Henderson's going
to settle his land

he needs to find someone
brave enough to lead the way.

And by sheer coincidence

he's about to meet him.

'Mr. Boone promised
to settle his debt'

as soon as he returned,
and yet here he is

refusing to make good
on his promise.

After his recent disastrous
hunting trip

Boone is facing debtor's prison.

Your Honor, I have every
intention of settling my debts.

When Boone returned from
two years in the wilderness

he was poorer
than when he set out.

There are tribes
all over Kentucky.

'I spent two years there.'

But he lived on hope

he lived on, on the sense

that things were gonna
break for him, you know?

Tracked enough pelts
to pay him back ten times over

before the Shawnee tracked me.

Henderson sees a way to
solve both of their problems.

The meeting of Daniel Boone

and Richard Henderson

uh, is one of these coincidences

that makes history.

Henderson needs
a guy like Daniel Boone

the essential frontiersman.

And he thinks Boone,
who is down on his luck

he's in serious debts,
is so desperate

that he would actually
take on this crazy, uh, scheme.

Mr. Boone..

...I've recently purchased
a rge parcel of land..

'...right around here.'

The judge offers Boone a choice.

Work off his debt
in hard labor camp

or blaze a trail into
the Kentucky wilderness.

For Daniel Boone

it'll be the greatest
challenge of his life.

He'll defy British law
and lead 30 settlers

farther west
than he's ever been.

Straight into Shawnee territory.

As Boone prepares
to challenge the crown..

...in New England,
another rebellion is brewing.

After nearly a decade
of growing anger

at repressive British taxes

Boston rebels
are throwing a tea party.

The idea of freedom and liberty

mattered to the colonists.

And their concern was,
they were on a slippery slope

to having their rights
and privileges eroded

by a tyrannical government

across the seas.

Tensions between crown and
colonies are escalating.

As Boone sets out

on a mission that will
shape the future of America.

Daniel Boone's foray
into the backcountry

at that time would be
the equivalent

of landing on the moon.

It was opening up
a whole new frontier.

This is before anyone had
any knowledge about how far

and expansive
this frontier truly was.

It was an opportunity
for Americans

to move into this region
and to discover

in that process, great wealth

and also, opportunity.

To reach Henderson's claim

Boone and his men must
cut a trail through a notch

in the Appalachian Mountains..

...the Cumberland Gap.

There were mountains
that had to be gone around

streams that had to be crossed.

The woods were full of Shawnees

and other Indians prowling.

After a grueling
400-mile journey..

...Boone arrives at the edge

of an untapped wilderness.

If I had access
to a time machine

I would go back
and be with Boone

the first time he went through
the Cumberland Gap

and dropped down into the
Kentucky hunting grounds.

I mean, this was
the Promised Land

that he had been striving for

as a frontiersman
his entire life.

The trail Boone blazes

will come to be known
as the Wilderness Road.

And over the next four decades

some 300,000 pioneers
will follow it west.

Daniel Boone really was
an iconic figure

even in his own time.

I mean, these were individuals
who could

and had to do it all.

There certainly is
something about Americans

that they were
always striving forward

relentlessly in search
of land that they could own

living by their own
self-reliance.

It was their idea
of the American dream.

It's an American dream that's
about to be born in fire.

Just two weeks
after Boone's arrival

colonial rage explodes..

...in the small town of
Lexington, Massachusetts.

It's the shot
heard round the world.

[ramatic music]

1775, a new spirit
of independence

is sweeping across America.

And on April 19th..

...the battles of Lexington
and Concord erupt

leaving 49 colonists dead.

The first casualties in what
will soon be a revolution.

The rebels that were fighting
were ordinary people.

They were farmers,
just everyday folks

that wanted freedom
and they wanted liberty.

And they were willing
to fight for it

against this great superpower

and they were willing
to die for this.

Four hundred miles west
on the Kentucky frontier

that same patriotic spirit
inspires Daniel Boone.

He and his men are building
a permanent settlement

in defiance
of the British crown.

Keep those nice and tight
as they go up, yeah?

- 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.'
- 'Alright.'

'Good work, boys.'

At the same time, Lexington

and Concord
is raging in the East

here is Daniel Boone and this
small ragtag group of men

cutting through and establishing
this settlement.

These seemingly
disconnected events

in some sense are wedded

as Americans are beginning
to fight for independence.

You also have
this process of expanding

what will become
the American nation.

Boone knows
they're on Shawnee soil

and throughout
the spring of 1775

he races to complete defenses.

Living on the frontier
was extremely dangerous.

Daniel Boone's own son
was tortured to death

by Indians a couple
years earlier.

And they knew that
if they were going to survive

they needed to live
in a fortified settlement.

Well, just imagine,
you've arrived

in the woods of Kentucky.

You have an axe,
and you have a few crosscut saws.

Every log has gotta be chopped.

It's gotta be sawed,
it's got to be notched

it's got to be rolled.

So, we're talking
about real hard work.

After four weeks of hard labor

the fort is christened
Boonesborough.

The settlement is the
largest ever established

on the frontier..

...and it quickly expands

triggering a new wave
of pioneers

drawn west by the promise
of owning land.

America is the land of dreams.

And you can just go out,
and if you have your axe

and your gun and some guts,
alright, you go out there

and maybe you're gonna
get killed in the wilderness

but you got a shot
at making your claim.

That did not exist in Europe.

All the land was taken.

It was all owned by these nobles

and lords and rich guys.

There was no opportunity.

But in America,
there was an opportunity.

Among the new arrivals
at Boonesborough

are Boone's wife
and eight children

including his 14-year-old
daughter, Jemima.

Jemima Boone was
Daniel Boone's favorite child.

Boone took a personal hand

in training Jemima as a marksman

as a woodswoman.

You might look
at Boone's decision

to move his family into
the Kentucky wilderness

now and think of it as

this really reckless,
dangerous thing.

But I think
he probably looked at it as

this was his chance
to have the American dream.

Where here's his promise of
acquiring a large chunk of land

that not only
that he could farm and settle

but that future generations
of Boones

would be able to farm and settle

and live off
the fat of the land.

By the end of 1775

the number of settlers
in Kentucky has tripled.

And settlements now cover

more than half a million acres of land.

A move that alarms native tribes

including the Shawnee.

For the last century,
they've been pushed relentlessly west.

Now, they see each new
settlement as an invasion..

...one they're determined
to stop.

In Kentucky, the Shawnees
were already thriving

before the arrival of Europeans.

In fact, they were one
of the more

kind of, influential

powerful people in that region.

When strange settlers

begin to build lodges
of their own

cabins and such

then native people
began to realize

this was more
of a permanent situation.

This is Shawnee territory,
it had to be defended.

And so, you go to war.

Among the most powerful
Shawnee leaders in Kentucky

is a war chief named Blackfish.

In 1776..

...he decides
to strike back.

Blackfish was
a well-known war leader

of the Chillicothe group
of the Shawnee nation.

He was a very respected leader

who drew people to him.

From Blackfish's perspective,
that land was Shawnee land.

And so, Blackfish believed

as many other Shawnees believed

that a definitive stand
had to be made

to stop losing ground
to the whites.

Deep in the Kentucky
wilderness..

...a Shawnee war party abducts

three young women
near Boonesborough.

Among them is Daniel Boone's
14-year-old daughter..

...Jemima.

You three, with me.

Ready your weapons
and stay alert. Man the wall.

As Americans expand
beyond the Appalachians

understandably,
conflict is gonna erupt

between the Native Americans

and... these frontiersmen

who have intruded
upon their lands.

The warning is clear.

No outsider who sets foot

on Shawnee land is safe.

But Jemima Boone is uniquely
equipped to survive.

Now, Boone's daughter starts

tearing little bits of fabric

from her apron or dress

and leaving along a trail.

So, here's someone,
she's getting abducted

and she knows
that she's gonna be taken

to these distant Indian villages

and possibly tortured and killed

and she has the presence of mind

to be leaving evidence
of their passage along the way.

'We keep our distance
till nightfall.'

Come on.

Spread out.

Come on!

'Watch the tree line.'

Are you alright?
Are you alright?

Come here.

The story of the abduction
of Jemima

went, as we would say, viral.

Almost everything Daniel Boone
did burnished his reputation.

He was the kind of figure

around whom stories collect.

Come on, come on.

People felt, how dumb

could you be

to kidnap the daughter
of Daniel Boone.

The Jemima story fits in

with many stories
of young women getting captured

by Native Americans at the time.

This, this was a,
a kind of great fear and anxiety

that just proliferated
throughout every single colony.

The idea that "We got her back

thanks to Daniel Boone's
heroism"

is the kind of reassurance

for women to go out there
who would, of course, be part

of the essential building
blocks of any society

and that was really important.

Within weeks of Boone's return

home to Boonesborough

the colonies move past
rebellion..

...to revolution.

'"When in the course
of human events'

"it becomes necessary
for one people

"to dissolve the political bands

'which have connected
them with another."'

In July 1776

the colonies declare
independence.

'"That among these, are life,
liberty'

and the pursuit of happiness."

And the United States
of America is born.

It's built on the ideals of
freedom and self-reliance..

...values personified
by frontiersmen.

Within a month, copies

of the Declaration
of Independence

reach remote outposts,
like Boonesborough.

When Daniel Boone gets word

of the Declaration
of Independence

he had to be aware
that in some sense

he was on the advance guard

the front edge of the
movement for independence.

Daniel Boone understood
that liberty

was the freedom to do exactly
what he had been doing

to traverse the West,
to provide for his family

to have a life independent
of some dictatorial power.

The colonists know the price
of independence is war.

But Britain's generals
have no doubt

they will crush the revolution.

Their plan is simple

hit eastern cities by sea

then send troops
down from Canada

to attack northern forts.

By November 1776,
the British take New York..

...then chase the Continental
Army into Pennsylvania.

Things were going very badly

for the American cause.

Great Britain entered the war

believing that they
could easily suppress us

because at this point

the United States
military was small

and generally
not very efficient.

And the British are the most
powerful empire in the world.

They had the most powerful army.

It was well-trained,
well-organized.

With the Continental Army
on the run

the British devise a new trap.

They'll open a western front in the war

by attacking settlements,
like Boonesborough.

Their strategy relies
on unlikely allies.

Consider them a gift.

The British allied
with the Native Americans

during the Revolutionary War

because the native allies
were useful

in terms of scouting,
providing information

simply as a fighting force.

Shawnees had conflict
with white settlers

coming into their land

so they were fighting this war

alongside the British.

In 1777, Britain
starts arming the Shawnee

and other Native American
tribes to fight the settlers.

In exchange, they promised
to return native lands.

These native people

they had no doubt
what was in store for them

if the Americans won.

They faced removal.

On the other hand

the British promised rewards
in land.

Now the Shawnee..

...and Daniel Boone

are on a collision course..

...that will help decide
the new nation's future.

By late 1777..

...the Shawnee
are British allies..

...part of a strategy
to open a western front

in the Revolutionary War.

The British,
in the time of the revolution

they were arming Indian
tribes to attack settlements.

They promised the Indians

that once they drove the
settlers out of Kentucky

they could recover
their territory.

The British could then attack

the colonies from the west.

That was part of their plan

to put down this rebellion.

In Boonesborough

Daniel Boone has no idea

of the coming danger.

And the settlement
has a different problem.

They're running
dangerously low on salt.

Salt was so important

to the settlers
at Boonesborough.

The diet of the people
was almost entirely game.

It was hunted meat.

Because Indians were
attacking settlers regularly

they stayed in that fort
as much as possible.

And there was very little
farming going on.

So, salt was the only way

that settlers had
to preserve meat.

To get salt, Boone and two dozen of his men

must head 50 miles from
the safety of their fort

to a distant river
rich with mineral deposits.

Today, we don't really
spend a whole lot of time

thinking about salt.

But it was a big undertaking
'cause they wouldn't go

to the store and buy it,
they would go

to, what they called a salt
lake, and this was just a spring

where the water coming up
out of the spring

has a high salt content.

Keep that energy up, boys.

You get to boil down five or
six hundred gallons of water

to end up with
a 50-pound bushel of salt.

Boone and his men can extract

about 500 pounds of salt a day

but they need 15,000 pounds
before winter.

The work leaves them
exposed in the wilderness

for nearly a month.

Boone and all of his men

are taken by the Shawnee.

The British will pay
a $100 bounty

for each captured settler.

The Shawnees and the settlers
in Kentucky were at war.

And when the Shawnees discovered
Boone and his men making salt

this was a sudden crime
of opportunity.

They took them
as prisoners of war.

These would've been
valuable assets.

First, they have to survive

a brutal Native American rite

called the gauntlet.

Running the gauntlet was a test

of one's strength and mettle.

And the gauntlet was also a way

of terrorizing your enemy.

In fact, many people did not survive.

Aah!

Fighting as British allies

the Shawnee have captured
Daniel Boone and his men.

To prove his worth

Boone is forced to run
the gauntlet.

Boone running the gauntlet

and kind of withstanding
all these hits

earns him, uh, the respect of,
uh, Blackfish.

And he's then able
to convince Blackfish

not to assault anybody else.

And it certainly added
to the legend of Daniel Boone.

Boone and his men may be alive..

...but they're prisoners
of war..

...in a rebellion that's
on the brink of failure.

By 1778..

...the exhausted Continental
Army is in full retreat.

But it can't escape the most
brutal winter in a century.

In the winter of 1777-1778

the British had occupied
Philadelphia.

Washington's Continental Army

is starving
and freezing to death

at Valley Forge.

It's a very dark time

for the American
revolutionary cause.

By February,
2,500 continental soldiers

die of exposure

disease and starvation.

More than double the casualties
of any single battle.

Back in Boonesborough..

...Boone and his men have
been missing for months.

Most settlers fear the worst.

Including Boone's wife, Rebecca.

Say bye to your sister.

- Bye.
- Goodbye.

Bye.

The people of Boonesborough

assumed the men had been killed.

They had to.

But Jemima stayed after Rebecca
took the rest of the family

back to North Carolina.

She believed that her father

would come back..

...and she was going
to be there to greet him.

Hundreds of miles from home..

...Boone has survived months of captivity.

Now, Chief Blackfish
is marching Boone's men

to the British stronghold
of Fort Detroit.

It's the central staging ground
for attacks from the west.

Part of Britain's plan to work
with their Native American

allies to crush the
colonies from all sides.

The British established

a majorheadquarters at Detroit.

It became the most important
fort in that region

and it was out of Detroit

that they sent the militias

and the supplies
for the Indians to attack.

That would become
a front in the war.

These prisoners were valuable
assets for the Shawnee.

They could trade them
with the British

as a symbol of their support
for the British side.

Unfortunately, some of them
actually were forced

into the British military.

What's going to happen
to those men?

- Where are you taking them?
- To be questioned.

Those men are not rebels.

They're just hunters
and farmers settled in Kentucky.

- What's your name?
- Daniel Boone.

- Of Boonesborough?
- Yes, sir.

You think that's your land?

Boonesborough has not declared
loyalty to the crown.

As such, I've been ordered
to take it by force.

'Blackfish will lead
a war party to take the fort.'

You will go with him to help
negotiate the surrender.

Please, let me...

That is what's going to happen.

Boonesborough is the most
important frontier settlement.

If it falls, the loss could be catastrophic

to the American cause.

Well, you could only imagine
what was going through

Boone's mind.

He realizes that the Shawnee
are going to

uh, attack Boonesborough

facing what seemed to be,
insurmountable odds.

Vastly outnumbered,
his family is there

so he decides that
he's going to risk it all

and try to escape.

Daniel Boone is on the move

making a daring escape..

...from his Shawnee captors.

He has to warn Boonesborough
that an attack is imminent.

'Boone!'

Alone, on foot

Boone must cover a 150 miles

faster than the Shawnee
or the fort will fall

allowing the British
and their allies

to attack the colonies
from the west.

Because he was an expert tracker

Boone knows very well
the kind of things you do

if you don't want someone
to follow you.

So, Boone would do things
like step only on rocks

to not leave a trail
and you cut zigzags

and circles and anything you can
do to confuse your pursuer.

When Boone escaped
from the Shawnees

he was not prepared
for a 100-mile journey.

His feet were blistered
and bloody.

Guys like Daniel Boone
who are on these

endurance journeys.

You'd have to be
in extremely good shape.

That's just a testimonial
to how tough these guys were.

He managed to do it
in four days.

In order to do that,
he drew on incredible resources

in his body.

This is an extraordinary story.

I mean, we're talkin' about, uh..

...four marathons
in four days

without shoes, uh,
through the wilderness..

Not even running on streets.

It builds on this reputation

of Daniel Boone the superhero
who can do anything.

'It's Boone!'

Home for the first time
in months

there's no time to rest.

The Shawnee are coming.

Gather our weapons.

Muskets, ammunition, gunpowder.

Get everything you can.

Everything they needed,
essentially

they had to produce themselves.

Everything they consumed,
everything they drank..

Uh, all the gunpowder
that they used

the, the lead bullets
that they cast

everything had to be made
from materials

that were at hand.

Combining leftover sulfur..

...charcoal from the campfire and bat dung

the settlers race
to make gunpowder.

It was a desperate time.
They were short of men.

They were short of ammunition,
short of supplies.

And yet, people of Boonesborough

were really
a part of the defense

as it turned out,
of the American, uh, Revolution.

Blackfish and his 450
Shawnee warriors

outnumber the people
of Boonesborough..

...seven to one.

Fearing a massacre..

...Boone makes a last ditch
effort to get reinforcements

and sends for the local militia.

They're stationed over
300 miles away..

...in Virginia.

And there's no telling
if they'll arrive in time..

...or at all.

Deep in the Kentucky wilderness

Daniel Boone braces
for an attack.

Four hundred and fifty
Shawnee warriors

are marching toward
Boonesborough..

...under British orders
to capture the fort.

If it falls, the blow to the colonial cause

could be devastating.

To understand what was going on
at Boonesborough

you have to consider it in
the context of the revolution.

The British
were encouraging Indians

to attack the Kentucky
settlements.

Boonesborough was the biggest
one, so they felt if they could

bring that down

they could probably
overrun Kentucky

and drive the settlers out.

And then attack from the
west against the colonies.

Boone sent word
to the Virginia militia

hoping for help.

But they're more than
300 miles away..

...and he has no idea

if they're coming.

'They're here!'

My God!

A force of hundreds
of Indians shows up.

They want to wipe Boonesborough
off the map.

Daniel Boone!

But Boone doesn't want

to engage them in a fight.

He's aware that the Shawnee

could possibly massacre them all

so he negotiates
with the Shawnee.

'I'm coming out!'

Do right by your people.

Surrender and no harm
will come to them.

'You have until sundown.'

I need more time
to discuss it with the others.

You have until sundown.

Man your post.
Fire at will.

Even though they were
vastly outnumbered

uh, by the Indians

the frontiersmen
who are in Boonesborough

they used good fortifications

they had stockpiles of weaponry.

And remember that they had
to hunt just to survive

so they were always
exceptional marksmen.

Aah!

We're gonna make this.
We're gonna make this.

Boone and a force
of just 60 settlers

fight off the first attack.

The Shawnee suffer
heavy casualties..

i0dt:1"X ...but Blackfish refuses
to give up.

The frontier story
has been told many times

almost always with the settlers

as the heroes of the story.

But American Indians
are Americans too.

Shawnee people were defending
what they considered to be

their homeland.

The Battle of Boonesborough
is just beginning.

In the first major battle
on the western front

of the Revolutionary War,
Boonesborough is under siege.

After taking heavy casualties

Shawnee leader, Blackfish,
changes tactics..

...unleashing a barrage
of surprise attacks

on the settlement.

Come on!

Just hang on.

The Native Americans we're
using hit-and-run tactics

and these are quite
devastatingly effective

because those in the frontier

feared that they could be
attacked at any time

at any place.

This, as in every combat,
is a test of wills.

They were vulnerable
and exposed.

Bullets were flying.

There was gun smoke
sometimes so thick

you couldn't see anything.

This went on day after day
after day.

With the fort surrounded,
the settlers are trapped.

There was human waste,
animal carcasses

and rotten meat layin' around.

Everyone's clothes
are in tatters.

I mean, this place
is a miserable cesspool.

The only thing worse
than being in here

would be to step out of there
and be tortured and killed.

Boone refuses to surrender.

The settlers stand their ground.

Aah!

The attacks continue
for nine straight days

but Blackfish still
can't take the fort.

Blackfish was in a very
complicated situation there.

He knew that unless Boone
surrendered the fort

it was unlikely
he could take it.

And in a well-built fort,
with those big logs, uh

with rifles,
he could not take the fort.

Blackfish and the Shawnees
just decided

if we can't bring them over,
if we can't capture them

we'll simply do whatever
we can to destroy them.

[c]

Boonesborough
is now a battlefield

in the Revolutionary War.

Armed by the British,
the Shawnee mount

a fierce attack.

But after ten days
of relentless fighting

the fort still stands.

Everybody out!

The siege of Boonesborough
was terrifying

for the people inside the fort.

The gunfire was so loud

women were screaming,
children were crying

they knew the Virginia
militia was on its way

but they didn't
get there in time.

So, the people of Boonesborough

simply assumed
the fort was falling.

At a very important moment

a rainstorm came
and doused the flames.

Had it not rained at that time

Boonesborough could have,
uh, been taken.

The Shawnees' attack fails.

And when a scout returns
with word

that the Virginia militia
is coming

Blackfish has no choice
but to retreat.

They knew there were
more men there, more rifles

more powder, more supplies

and psychologically this was
so discouraging to the Indians

and Blackfish that
the next morning they were gone.

After a eleven days of brutal,
round-the-clock fighting

the Battle of Boonesborough
is finally over.

Securing a badly needed
colonial win.

It would be hard to exaggerate
the importance of the victory

at Boonesborough
for the colonies at this time.

It was a desperate time.

1778 was a bad year
for the Americans.

So, even this little battle
in way off in Kentucky

s important.

The British make a major
miscalculation in dealing

with Boonesborough
and the American frontier.

By supporting
Native American attacks

against the colonists
in the West

that only infuriates
and increases

the hatred
of the British in the East.

This was the deepest anxiety

that these English colonists
had, and for the British to now

just push that button,
it's the height of stupidity.

Just days after
the Shawnee retreat..

...the Virginia militia
finally arrives.

They've come with a new mission

to escalate the war
on the frontier

by striking back against
Britain and its allies.

Their first target
is Chillicothe

the home of Blackfish

and an opportunity for revenge.

Boone was opposed
to exterminationist raids.

These raids north of the Ohio

were aimed at destroying

the Indian homeland.

Burning villages,
burning cornfields

attacking women and children,
killing indiscriminately.

This was just not Boone's style.

I don't know
where their village is.

The remarkable thing about
Boone is that Boone doesn't

turn into an Indian hater.

He doesn't give his life over
to hate and vengeance.

He still has it in him
the capability

to seek peace with these people.

It's kind of remarkable,
because I think that if most

people imagined that situation

the hate would define you
for the rest of your life.

'I do.'

It's right here.

North of the Ohio River.

Boone's refusal to fight
at Chillicothe

causes a rift between him
and the other settlers.

In the fall of 1778,
Daniel and Jemima Boone

leave the settlement he founded.

He goes on to join
American forces

fighting the British
on the western front.

And though he never again
sets foot in Boonesborough

the settlement survives..

...and Kentucky will become

America's 15th state.

Boone remains a seductive figure

in the American imagination.

I think we all like to fancy

that in those circumstances
we would be that brave

and that resourceful
and that capable

to live through and do
the things that he did.

But also throughout his life

he seems just have remained
a good guy.

Boone still stands out
as this likable figure

who treated people fairly

wanted the best for people.

And he had that
rugged individualism

that is the embodiment
of American frontiersmen.

With Boone gone, in May 1779

Virginia's militia marches
on Britain's allies

the Shawnee.

Chillicothe is home
to 3000 Shawnee..

...when the Virginia militia
descends bent on revenge.

For the Shawnee people,
the loss of a beloved leader

in Blackfish
was a serious event.

Blackfish loomed large

because of his stature and
reputation as a war leader.

The loss of Blackfish was
the loss of yet another hero.

From those that survive

a new Shawnee hero will emerge.

The adopted son of Blackfish,
a 11-year-old Tecumseh

who will soon rise
to lead his people

in the fight to reclaim
the frontier.

One year after the death of Chief Blackfish

the Continental Army begins
to turn the tide of the war.

The success of the settlers
in defending Boonesborough

was just one incident in a long
series of fights and battles.

Eventually, the French
come into the conflict

as the allies of the Americans.

And in many ways, that indeed

was the turning point
in the revolution.

In September, 1783

Britain signs
the Treaty of Paris.

Formally recognizing
the sovereignty

of the United States of America

and ending the war.

People might not realize
this, but the Treaty of Paris

was actually signed
by this new United States

the British Empire
and the French Empire.

France provided troops,
provided navies

and funded
the American Revolution.

Britain figured France
was actually

its bigger enemy
in the long run.

So, Britain surrendered
pretty much all the lands

West of the Appalachians
to the Mississippi River

to make an ally
of the new United States.

The new country
nearly doubles in size

gaining more than 250,000
square miles of land..

...stretching from Florida
to Canada

and from the Atlantic
to the Mississippi.

The big surprise
of the Treaty of Paris

was that the British
conceded control

of the entire
Trans-Appalachian West.

It was an incredible bounty

for the new nation.

Free from British rule

American settlers race
to claim their piece

of the frontier.

Over the next decade

thousands of settlers flood west

along the trails blazed
by men like Daniel Boone

but they will soon learn
a hard lesson.

While the British Army
had surrendered

the native people
in the west never surrendered.

Native Americans
still claim this land

and Tecumseh, now grown

is about to reignite
the fight for the frontier.

Next time on the "Men Who Built
America, Frontiersmen.."

As the new nation pushes
relentlessly west

the frontier becomes
a bloody battleground.

Tecumseh recognizes that
if the natives are to survive

they need to band together.

Surrounded by enemies

Thomas Jefferson
makes a bold move

that could cost him
the presidency.

The Louisiana Purchase
was the greatest

real estate deal
in the history of the world.

He launches
one of the most daring

expeditions in American history.

If you want to get a sense
for how mysterious

the western lands were to the
Lewis and Clark expedition

it was as strange to them
as it would be

for you or me
to step foot on Mars.

Then, as a new generation

of frontiersmen emerges

Andrew Jackson
stares down an empire.

Fire!