.04.21 — The Pioneers, David McCullough

What is it?

An enriching historical account of the early American settlers of the Northwest Territory, many of them Revolutionary War veterans inspired by George Washington’s vision of westward expansion for the nation. McCullough centers his work around the group of settlers who founded Marietta, the first permanent settlement in the newly incorporated Northwest Territory. The settlement, located at the mouth of the Muskingum River, was part of what would later become Ohio. Much of the story is devoted to Manasseh Cutler, one of the most influential figures in the city’s founding and development. Cutler, a pastor and later member of Congress from Massachusetts, was staunch in his desire that Ohio be a free territory. His impassioned efforts to include this provision in the landmark Northwest Ordinance of 1787 is contrasted with the destruction he and his fellow settlers brought on the Native Americans living in the region at the time. Like most pioneer figures of the period, Cutler is morally complex, though the fortitude and yearning for exploration he and his contemporaries displayed inarguably set the table for future American expansion.

My thoughts

The first audiobook I have recorded here, my comprehension and memory when listening is never as certain compared to titles I read visually. Nevertheless, The Pioneers at times paints a vivid image of an unviolated America, one where Midwestern trees are so broad as to permit 6 men to march through their trunks shoulder to shoulder, and where the soil is so fertile that the first planting of corn yields stalks 14 feet tall. It can be painful to listen to the immediate stripping of the bounty of the area; within a year hunting had been so rampant that no game could be found within 20 miles of the settlement. This retrospective moral high-standing must be balanced though, with a sense of appreciation for the advances enabled by the courageous struggles of the settlers. Without their desire to expand and develop new lands, surely profit seeking, but also in continuation of the “A City upon a Hill” ideal, the growth of America would have stunted.