Always for the Underdog: Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War

Preface

Preface does America possess enough unity and shared history for large cultural values and myths to pervade all levels of society? Does the country possess enough similarity for a few key concepts to make a noticeable impact on the minds of the American population? If so, what concepts and values are broad enough to reach all Americans, yet powerful enough to direct them? For some folklorists, the question is an intriguing one. In fact, it becomes the most important.1 Discovering which shared beliefs exist in the American mind-set could yield incredible insight about the essence of being American, about the cornerstones of American culture. If these shared beliefs exist, we must ask a second question. What stories or which figures could communicate those beliefs and resonate with members of such a diverse group? Certain folklorists have suggested a few possibilities. Many folklorists turn to “America: The Land of Opportunity” as the most pervasive national belief. Could this idea touch the soul of every American? Could this value shape a national mind-set? The suggestion seems reasonable, especially as one considers that many scholars argue that this single core idea manifests in a variety of forms: “The Promised Land, The Earthly Paradise, Manifest Destiny, The Garden of Eden, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.”2 Beverly Stoeltje, a noted folklorist, claims that Americans envision America as a land of opportunity by continually creating the myth of the frontier for each new generation. Offering a new home, a new place to conquer, a new prospect for discovery and progress—the myth of the frontier presents xi xii฀฀฀|฀฀฀PreFace America as a land of perpetual opportunity, a land of continual promise . In her argument, the recent frontier of space replaces the old frontier of the West, and this notion of the continual frontier “tells the story of the sociopolitical process known as exploration and Conquest of the Unknown, the nucleus of the Progress of Western Civilization.”3 If this pattern serves as “the nucleus of the Progress of Western Civilization ,” one wonders about the consequences. Undoubtedly, conquering the unknown implies violence. If in the American context this process of conquest is settling the frontier, students of the past can hardly debate the role of violence. In American history books and other records, the strong and the rugged clear out the trees, break the soil, tame the untamed. The rough and the tough settle the West. The aggressive and the hardy forge ahead until they hit the ocean. Consequently, the frontier remains unchanged until that person with enough grit and toughness arrives. The frontier remains unsettled until the man or woman with enough daring and strength and ingenuity comes along to brave the uncharted and do the nearly impossible. At least, that’s what popular consciousness would have us believe. Settlement relies on frontier independence, and this land needs the rugged individualist to bring it into the fold of civilization. In order to progress, the frontier—and America by extension—requires the rugged individual’s self-reliance, his grit and toughness, and perhaps even his isolationism. But what is the second half of the story? The frontier, even if it seems stubborn on the surface, wants to be tamed, wants to be claimed, and is always better off when it is. Like a wild stallion that develops a resilient love for the master who overcomes all to befriend the beast and tame him, the frontier waits for the right person to unfold its riches. A hardy constitution, a violent disposition, a disregard for laws, or a desire to make your own, and a proclivity for ruthlessness: these traits grew in the American mind as the stock characteristics of the frontiersman. Engrained in the country’s psyche, these became the traits of the individual able to take on the frontier and tame it. But as experience teaches us, a darker side lurks. Similar to the Byronic hero whose personal code isolates him, the frontiersman’s ruggedness and internal code develops into a violent disposition and refusal to be governed. His pragmatism and independence stretch to ruthlessness and lawlessness. His desire for PreFace฀฀฀|฀฀฀xiii personal liberty and free enterprise grow to beliefs in unbound personal gain and fierce competitiveness. These ideas don’t exist without opponents. Mody Boatright’s 1941 “The Myth of Frontier Individualism” debunks the myth of the rugged individualist. Boatright tracks the comments made by travel...