Editing Daniel Boone (section)

==Into Kentucky==
{{blockquote|It was the first of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my domestic happiness for a time, and left my family ... to wander through the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of Kentucky.|Daniel Boone{{sfn|Morgan|2007|p=339}}}}

[[File:Boone's First View of Kentucky.jpg|thumb|''Boone's First View of Kentucky'', [[William Tylee Ranney]] (1849)]]
[[File:George Caleb Bingham - Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap.jpg|thumb|[[George Caleb Bingham]]'s ''Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through the Cumberland Gap'' (1851–52) is a famous depiction of Boone.]]

Years before entering [[Kentucky]], Boone had heard about the region's fertile land and abundant game. In 1767, Boone and his brother [[Squire Boone|Squire]] first crossed into what became the state of Kentucky, but they failed to reach the rich hunting grounds.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|p=71}}{{sfn|Morgan|2007|p=85}} In May 1769, Boone set out again with a party of five others{{emdash}}including [[John Finley (frontiersman)|John Findley]], who first told Boone of the [[Cumberland Gap]]{{emdash}}on a two-year hunting and trapping expedition.{{sfn|Lofaro|2012|pp=13, 29}} His first sighting of the [[Bluegrass region]] from atop [[Pilot Knob State Nature Preserve|Pilot Knob]] became "an icon of American history", and was the frequent subject of paintings.{{sfn|Morgan|2007|p=97}}

On December 22, 1769, Boone and his brother-in-law and fellow longhunter [[John Stewart (frontiersman)|John Stewart]] were captured by a party of [[Shawnee]], who confiscated all of their skins and told them to leave and never return.{{sfn|Lofaro|2012|pp=30–31}} The Shawnee had not signed the 1768 [[Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768)|Treaty of Fort Stanwix]], in which the [[Iroquois]] had ceded their claim to Kentucky to the British. The Shawnee regarded Kentucky as their hunting ground; they considered American hunters there to be [[poaching|poachers]].{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=79–80}}{{sfn|Aron|1996|pp=18–19}} Boone, undeterred, continued hunting and exploring in Kentucky. On one occasion, he shot a man to avoid capture, which historian John Mack Faragher says "was one of the few Indians that Boone acknowledged killing."{{sfn|Faragher|1992|p=86}} Boone returned to North Carolina in 1771, but came back to hunt in Kentucky in the autumn 1772.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=87–88}}

In 1773, Boone packed up his family and, with his brother Squire and a group of about 50 others, began the first attempt by British colonists to establish a settlement. Boone was still an obscure figure at the time; the most prominent member of the expedition was [[William Russell (Virginia politician)|William Russell]], a well-known Virginian and future brother-in-law of [[Patrick Henry]].{{sfn|Faragher|1992|p=90}} Another member of this expedition was Boone's friend and fellow long-hunter, Michael Stoner.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Michael Stoner: The Frontiersman Who Was Always There|url=https://www.varsitytutors.com/earlyamerica/early-america-review/volume-3/michael-stoner-the-frontiersman-who-was-always-there|access-date=November 2, 2021|website=www.varsitytutors.com|language=en}}</ref>

Included in this group were an unknown number of enslaved Blacks, including Charles and Adam. On October 9, Boone's oldest son, James, several Whites and Charles and Adam left the main party to seek provisions in a nearby settlement. They were attacked by a band of [[Lenape|Delawares]], Shawnee, and Cherokees. Following the Fort Stanwix treaty, American Indians in the region had been debating what to do about the influx of settlers. This group had decided, in the words of Faragher, "to send a message of their opposition to settlement".{{sfn|Faragher|1992|p=93}} James Boone and William Russell's son, Henry, were tortured and killed. Charles was captured. Adam witnessed the horror concealed in riverbank driftwood. After wandering in the woods for 11 days, Adam located the group and informed Boone of the circumstances of their deaths. Charles's body was found by the pioneers 40 miles from the abduction site, dead from a blow to the head.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Lucas|first=Marion B.|date=1997|title=African Americans on the Kentucky Frontier|journal=The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society|volume=95|issue=2|pages=121–134|jstor=23383743}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Lucas|first=Marion Brunson|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1007290645|title=A history of Blacks in Kentucky : from slavery to segregation, 1760–1891|publisher=Kentucky Historical Society|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8131-5977-5|location=Frankfort|pages=xi, xii, 84|oclc=1007290645}}</ref> The brutality of the killings sent shockwaves along the frontier, and Boone's party abandoned their expedition.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=89–96}}

The attack was one of the first events in what became known as [[Dunmore's War]], a struggle between Virginia and American Indians for control of what is now West Virginia and Kentucky. In the summer of 1774, Boone traveled with a companion to Kentucky to notify surveyors there of the outbreak of war. They journeyed more than {{convert|800|mi|km}} in two months to warn those who had not already fled the region. Upon his return to Virginia, Boone helped defend colonial settlements along the [[Clinch River]], earning a promotion to captain in the militia, as well as acclaim from fellow citizens. After the brief war, which ended soon after Virginia's victory in the [[Battle of Point Pleasant]] in October 1774, the Shawnee relinquished their claims to Kentucky.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=98–106}}{{sfn|Lofaro|2012|pp=44–49}}

Following Dunmore's War, [[Richard Henderson (jurist)|Richard Henderson]], a prominent judge from North Carolina, hired Boone to help establish a colony to be called [[Transylvania (colony)|Transylvania]].{{#tag:ref|Boone's earlier expeditions into Kentucky might have been financed by Henderson in exchange for information about potential places for settlement, though the record is unclear.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=74–76, 348}}|group=note}} Boone traveled to several Cherokee towns and invited them to a meeting, held at [[Sycamore Shoals]] in March 1775, where Henderson purchased the Cherokee claim to Kentucky.{{sfn|Morgan|2007|pp=156–162}}

Boone then blazed "Boone's Trace", later known as the [[Wilderness Road]], through the [[Cumberland Gap]] and into central Kentucky. Sam, an enslaved Black "body servant", and other enslaved laborers were among this group of settlers. When this group camped near the location of present-day [[Richmond, Kentucky]], Indians attacked, killing Sam and his owner. After driving off the attackers, the party buried the two men side by side.<ref name=":0" />

Boone founded [[Boonesborough, Kentucky|Boonesborough]] along the [[Kentucky River]]; other settlements, notably [[Harrodsburg, Kentucky|Harrodsburg]], were also established at this time. Despite occasional Indian attacks, Boone brought his family and other settlers to Boonesborough on September 8, 1775.{{sfn|Morgan|2007|p=189}}