A Child of the Revolution: William Henry Harrison and His World, 1773–1798

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A Child ofthe Revolution Hendrik Booraem V William Henry Harrison and His World, 1773–1798 IndianwarsinearlyOhioasseenthroughtheeyesofafuturepresident “. . . provides the most detailed, contextualized, and psychologically astute portrait of the young William Henry Harrison currently available.” Andrew Cayton, Miami University “The author is a magician who pulls the youthful, and all but invisible, William Henry Harrison from an Ohio Valley hat.The rabbit is an entertaining surprise, and the trick displays the practiced skill of a talented writer and researcher.” Thomas P. Slaughter, University of Rochester “Booraem has produced the definitive look at William Henry Harrison’s early years. Painstakingly researched and thoughtfully written, it will be a valuable resource for historians and Harrison buffs for years to come.” Robert M. Owens, author of Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy “Using a thorough analysis of the social, intellectual, economic, geographic, political, and military environments in which young William Henry Harrison lived, Rik Booraem explains, as no one has before, the factors creating the personality of a future president.” David Curtis Skaggs, author of William Hazard Perry and other books “Hendrik Booraem’s meticulously researched and insightful biography of William Henry Harrison’s early years is well worth reading.Not only does he thoughtfully examine the future president’s childhood and family life, but Booraem also intelligently explores the complex world that shaped and influenced the youth as he grew to adulthood.” Phillip Hamilton, author of The Making and Unmaking of a Revolutionary Family: The Tuckers of Virginia, 1752–1830 The Kent State University Press Kent, Ohio 44242 www.KentStateUniversityPress.com 9 781606 351154 isbn 978-1-60635-115-4 Continued from front flap Drawing on a variety of primary documents, Booraem re-creates military life as Lieutenant Har­ rison experienced it—a life of duels, discipline, rivalries ,hardships,baffling encounters with the natives ,and social relations between officers and men, military and civilians, and men and women. Hendrik Booraem V was educated at the University of Virginia and The Johns Hopkins University . A specialist in the early lives of American presidents, he has published studies of Garfield, Coolidge,and Andrew Jackson and shorter pieces on Hoover and Monroe.He is working on a book on Gerald Ford’s youth. On the cover:William Henry Harrison,print by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin.Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. The Kent State University Press Kent, Ohio 44242 www.KentStateUniversityPress.com The American Revolution gave birth to a nation, forever changed the course of political thought, and shattered and transformed the lives of the citizens of the new republic. An iconic figure of the Old Northwest,governor,Indian fighter,general in the War of 1812, and ultimately president, William Henry Harrison was one such citizen. The son of a rich Virginia planter, Harrison saw his family mansion burned and his relatives scattered . In the war’s aftermath, he rejected his inherited beliefs about slavery,religion,and authority , and made an idealistic commitment to serve the United States. This led him to the United States Army,which at the time was a sorry collection of drunks and derelicts who were about to be reorganized in the face of a serious conflict with the Indian nations of the Ohio valley.Author Hendrik Booraem follows Harrison as General Anthony Wayne attempted to rebuild the army into a fighting force, first in Pittsburgh, then in Cincinnati and the forests of the Northwest.A voracious reader of history and the classics,Harrison became fascinated with the archaeology and ethnology of the region, even as his military service led to a dramatic showdown with the British army, which had secretly been aiding the Indians. By age 21,Harrison had achieved almost everything he had set his heart on—adventure,recognition ,intellectual stimulation,and even a small measure of power.He was the youngest man to put his name to theTreaty of Greenville,which ended Indian control over Ohio lands and opened the way for development and statehood. He won a bride: Anna Symmes,the Eastern-educated daughter of pioneer landowner John Cleves Symmes. When Congress voted to downsize the army,25-year-old Harrison,now a family man,began his second career , that of a politician. Continued on back flap A Child of the Revolution william henry harrison and his world, 1773–1798 Booraem Booraem DJ.indd 1 5/22/12 2:00 PM A Child of the Revolution Booraem...