All posts by redhatrob

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Spirit of the Living God

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Spirit of the Living God

by Daniel Iverson

Spirit of the living God
Fall afresh on me
Spirit of the living God
Fall afresh on me

Break me, melt me, mould me, fill me
Spirit of the living God
Fall afresh on me

God certainly works in mysterious ways. I was notified over the weekend that someone had left a comment on RedHatRob on the “about” page.

The author was one Bill Iverson, who is a graduate of Davidson College, class of 1947 – about 30 years before my time. He had been a professor at King College in the late 1960s and took his students to Covenant College in 1971 to hear an unusual Christian apologist with an international ministry based in Switzerland – Francis Schaeffer of L’Abri.

But the story gets richer. Bill Iverson is also a retired Presbyterian minister who asked me a number of questions about the Schaeffer Study Center and prayed with me over the phone (which was a great encouragement). His father was Dan Iverson, a Presbyterian evangelist who was active in Florida in the 1920s, 1930s, & 1940s. In 1926, he wrote the hymn, Spirit of the Living God, Fall Afresh on Me.

When that song was first sung at an evangelistic event in 1926, it became the focus of an entire evangelistic meeting.

Here is Bill Iverson’s description:

My father’s famous chorus was written in the First Presbyterian Church, Orlando in 1926, located next to a 4000 capacity temporary tabernacle.  He presented the hymn before preaching and never got to the sermon.  The congregation sung the chorus for forty-five minutes.  Helen Leonard,  wife of Col. (Chaplain) Bill Leonard was ten years old at that time. She told my mother about how  her father, Presbyterian evangelist George Stephens,  gave an invitation after the one hymn worship service with four hundred persons responding.  The atmosphere was electric and this one time in her life she knew what the Presence is.

I’ve added to the site a letter Bill composed to his dad a few months ago, on his Dad’s 118th birthday. Bill sent me a copy in an email earlier today.

Take a minute and read it: Bill Iverson – Tribute to my Father.

It will refresh, inspire and encourage you…

– Rob

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The Mayflower and the Pilgrims’ New World

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Just published! And just in time for Thanksgiving.

The Mayflower and the Pilgrims’ New World by Nathaniel Philbrick.

“My first impression of the period consisted of two conflicting ideas: the time-honored tradition of how the Pilgrims came to symbolize all that is good about America, and the now equally familiar modern tale of how the evil Europeans killed the innocent Native Americans. I soon learned that the real-life Indians and the English of the seventeenth century were too smart, too generous, too greedy, too brave – in short, too human – to behave so predictably.”

Philbrick has done a remarkable job capturing the “too human” details about both Pilgrims and Indians in this story. This version is an adaptation the adult non-fiction book that was a New York Times bestseller. That book is worth reading for adults. This adaptation is a great read for upper middle school and high school students who want more details about the Pilgrims’ voyage, encounter with the Indians, survival, and eventual war.

Philbrick focuses on the leaders of the colony, especially elder William Brewster and Governor William Bradford. He also gives us a great deal of detail about the leaders of the New England Indians – Chief Massasoit, and the intriguing Squanto, both of whom emerge as shrewd, complex characters. The tragedy of the story is that Massasoit’s son decided to wage war on the English settlements in 1675, breaking the 55 years of (relative) peace which had been enjoyed between English settlers and Native Americans.

The book is divided into three parts (about 100 pages each): Discovery (1619-1621), Community (1625-1674), and War (1675-1676). The writing is excellent. The tone is matter-of-fact and nuanced. Philbrick is at pains to document and distinguish the good and bad behavior among all the players in this drama. The text is accompanied by an excellent series of maps, and interspersed with photographs of historical artifacts.

I’d recommend this as a great read for high school students studying American history.

The Mayflower and the Pilgrims’ New World
is a hardback, 338 pages. It is available directly from Greenleaf Press for $19.99.

– Rob Shearer
Publisher, Greenleaf Press
Director, Schaeffer Study Center

2008 Election

What if Obama wins? What if McCain wins?

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One of my email correspondents asked me what I feared from an Obama/Biden/Reid/Pelosi election triumph.

I still think McCain will win the election, but here’s my response:

Domestically:
My church does not ordain women, nor will we marry homosexual couples. Nor are we going to cease reading the Bible and preaching through all of the text. If Obama is elected president, I believe my church will lose its tax-exempt status and quite possibly face hate-speech/hate-crime charges within the next four years.

Obama will sign the federal freedom-of-choice act (he has pledged to do so in his first week) which will federalize the regulation of abortion, and repeal all state laws regulating abortion. There will be more abortions.

Obama will further federalize education. There will be pressure to enroll students at a younger age, and to “screen” families at risk for those in “need of services.” Nothing frightens homeschoolers more — with good reason.

Obama will seek to nationalize healthcare. This will result in higher taxes, lower to no economic growth, and a rationing of health care benefits. It works so well in Canada and the UK.

Foreign policy:
Obama will simultaneously capitulate in Iraq, abandoning everything that has been accomplished there while escalating in Afghanistan and Pakistan (partially in compensation). This will de-stabilize the region, leading to more bloodshed and more terrorism.

Obama will all-but-abandon our alliance with Israel, further emboldening the terrorist opponents of Israel. Significant loss of life and further terrorism.

Obama will appear reasonable to the Europeans and contemptible to the Russians, the Chinese, and the N. Koreans. The Europeans will continue to sneer at us behind our backs. The Russians and the Chinese will be emboldened and become more confrontational, believing they have little to fear by way of retaliation. The N. Koreans are just plain nuts. Obama’s new secretary of state will repeat Madeleine Albright’s hug of Kim Jong Il.

Obama’s reasonableness will be mistaken for weakness which will lead to power and territorial grabs by the Axis of Evil and we will be in another shooting war. In that war, the draft will be revived, “out of fairness,” and women will be included in the draft “out of fairness.” RedHatRob will go to jail attempting to resist the drafting of his daughters.

On the other Hand, if McCain wins . . .


Domestically:
McCain will not make federal hate-crime legislation a priority, thus postponing the creation of the thought-police for at least 4-8 years.

McCain will not federalize abortion regulation. Neither will the Supreme Court overturn Roe (much as I wish they would), but there will still be room for crisis pregnancy centers and adoption agencies to continue their work reducing the number of abortions.

McCain will not further federalize education (I wish he would repeal No Child Left Behind, but he probably won’t). Homeschoolers will still have to fight a never-ceasing battle to protect the right to homeschool against state legislatures, but at least the federal government won’t be leaning on the table-top tilting the playing field.

McCain will not institute nationalized healthcare. The people who pay taxes will breath a sigh of relief.

Foreign Policy:
The Europeans and the Axis of Evil won’t like McCain. But they won’t want to mess with him either. McCain will gradually withdraw combat troops from Iraq, without announcing any date certain for a complete pull-out. With a little luck, the Iraqi government will survive and the impact in the middle east will continue to be game-changing. McCain will retask the missions in Afghanistan & Pakistan, but quietly – no fanfare, no public announcements. That too has a reasonable chance to succeed.

McCain will continue US support for Israel. The Arab world won’t like it. But they won’t want to mess with him either.

N. Korea will remain nuts. Who knows?

There will be no need for a draft. Women will not be conscripted.

Oh… and we will have our first woman elected as Vice President!

Caveat:
On two issues, McCain will disappoint conservatives.

One: He will push an immigration reform package which includes amnesty for those already here.

Two: He will push an energy package which will fund research into alternative energy sources, open up drilling in limited parts of AK and the gulf & east coast, AND which will impose some sort of carbon emissions reduction scheme. Everybody will like parts of it and hate parts of it. The global warming component will be increasingly embarrassing as temperatures fall and new records are set for colder winters, more snowfall, and larger icecaps. But it will pass anyway, cause most congressman are stupid.

you asked…

– Rob Shearer (aka RedHatRob)

2008 Election

Barack Obama and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge

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It’s been difficult to find detailed information about the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, but I have long suspected that it was the best source for insights into Sen. Obama’s policy ideas and expertise.

Recall, Barack Obama was the Chairman of the Board. The Board’s responsibilities included reviewing proposals from “external partners” and making decisions about whether to fund them or not.

There’s a lengthy new piece up today at NRO by Stanley Kurtz which examines some of the “external partners” that Sen. Obama and the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge voted to fund.

An excerpt:

In the winter of 1996, the Coalition for Improved Education in [Chicago’s] South Shore (CIESS) announced that it had received a $200,000 grant from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. That made CIESS an “external partner,” i.e. a community organization linked to a network of schools within the Chicago public system. This network, named the “South Shore African Village Collaborative” was thoroughly “Afrocentric” in orientation. CIESS’s job was to use a combination of teacher-training, curriculum advice, and community involvement to improve academic performance in the schools it worked with. CIESS would continue to receive large Annenberg grants throughout the 1990s.

The South Shore African Village Collaborative (SSAVC) was very much a part of the Afrocentric “rites of passage movement,” a fringe education crusade of the 1990s. SSAVC schools featured “African-Centered” curricula built around “rites of passage” ceremonies inspired by the puberty rites found in many African societies. In and of themselves, these ceremonies were harmless. Yet the philosophy that accompanied them was not. On the contrary, it was a carbon-copy of Jeremiah Wright’s worldview.

I was pleased that Kurtz characterized the “rite of passage” ceremonies as “harmless.” I would be willing to go further and endorse creative attempts to foster a “rite of passage,” especially for adolescent males. This is not, by any means, an exclusively racial problem. It is specifically a male problem. Adolescent males are responsible for most of the disruptive and criminal behavior in our culture. There has been a breakdown in the cultural traditions which “tame” the wildness and irresponsibility of adolescent males.

Having said that, the South Shore African Village Collaborative seems to have latched onto theories of separatist black identity cultural politics as the source and trappings of their particular attempt to improve the schools in Chicago. It might have been well-intentioned, but the “black identity” politics of Jeffries, Hilliard, Wright, et al contain much that is objectionable. Their approach to cultural issues has appeal to their target audience but it is simplistic and demagogic. It amounts to the adoption of a single standard – all that is wrong in our culture is white and European. All that is admirable is African, black, and “kemetic.” Don’t get me started on “Kemet” and the wisdom of Ptah-hotep. It’s the X-files version of Egyptian history. Entertaining, yes. Scholarly, not.

I think Kurtz is right that this school initiative was at its core an attempt to forge an identity for school-children from the “black separatist” movements of the 1970s & 1980s. It helps explain Obama’s longstanding membership in Wright’s church. It also explains the alliance with and involvement of Prof. of Education Bill Ayers, whose main academic focus has been “white supremacy” in American education, which he views as a persistent and pervasive problem.

Perhaps Obama has altered his views on black separatism since the 1990’s. I confess I have the nagging suspicion that he has not completely disclosed or discussed his views on this topic during the campaign.

– Rob Shearer (aka RedHatRob)

2008 Election

Obama favors drafting women – McCain is opposed

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From a story in today’s Pttsburgh Post-Gazette:

Candidates differ on female draft
Monday, October 13, 2008
By Jerome L. Sherman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Even as the U.S. confronts two long wars, neither Sen. John McCain nor Sen. Barack Obama believes the country should take the politically perilous step of reviving the military draft.

But the two presidential candidates disagree on a key foundation of any future draft: Mr. Obama supports a requirement for both men and women to register with the Selective Service, while Mr. McCain doesn’t think women should have to register.

Also, Mr. Obama would consider officially opening combat positions to women. Mr. McCain would not.

“Women are already serving in combat [in Iraq and Afghanistan] and the current policy should be updated to reflect realities on the ground,” said Wendy Morigi, Mr. Obama’s national security spokeswoman. “Barack Obama would consult with military commanders to review the constraints that remain.”

The push to allow women to participate equally in all branches of the military in all positions leads inevitably to this result.

In the next war, women are going to be drafted.

I cannot conceive of a more misguided, more tragic policy position.

If Obama is elected president, my daughters and grand-daughters face conscription and involuntary military service.

Obama and the Democrats think this is just fine.

McCain is opposed to it.

I don’t need to know anything else about the two candidates.

– Rob Shearer (aka RedHatRob)
Dad to eight beautiful daughters. Uncle Sam can have them when you pry them from my cold dead fingers.
My sons are not happy with the prospect either . . .


2008 Election

Todd Palin, the Alaska Independence Party, and terrorists

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In its never-ending desire to secure the election of Barack Obama, the mainstream media seems willing to commit all manner of journalistic malpractice.

The latest is the attempt to deflect the attention from Senator Obama’s Illinois political allies and supporters, William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn (founders of the 1970’s terrorist group, the Weather Underground).

To do this, they’ve resorted to the fantasy that Todd Palin associated with terrorists in Alaska. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. posted an article on the Huffington Post attempting to do this. Kennedy’s article is a deceptive, misleading collection of half-truths. It has been accepted as gospel truth and widely circulated by defenders of Obama. It is a despicable piece of shoddy research, which even the author has to know is a falsehood.

In the article Kennedy asserts that Todd Palin joined the Alaska Independence Party and that the AIP was “rabidly and violently anti-American.”

Ironic of course, for any member of the political left to wrap themselves in the flag and profess outrage at “anti-Americanism.”

The facts in the story are simply wrong. Todd Palin didn’t “join” the AIP, and the AIP is hardly a hotbed of anti-American terrorists.

Todd Palin didn’t “join” the Alaska Independence Party – he selected it as his “party preference” when he registered to vote

This may seem like a mere technicality, but anyone who lives in a state where voters record their “party preference” knows what that means. In Alaska, voters have the option of registering their party preference. Todd Palin registered his party preference as Alaska Independence Party in October, 1995. In 2000, he changed his party preference to “undeclared,” and then a few months later changed it back to “Alaska Independence Party.” In July of 2002, he again changed his party preference to “undeclared.” See: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/todd_palin_was_registered_memb.php

Note: the headline on this site is misleading. You don’t have to be a “member” of a political party to register your preference with the state division of elections. You are simply recording your party preference. There are three “third party” political groups in Alaska, the Alaska Independence Party, the Green Party, and the Patriot Party. Third parties in AK can have their nominees automatically placed on the ballot if at least 3% of the registered voters indicate the party as their “party preference” in their voter registration. This is obviously a great advantage to a third party, so they encourage as many voters as possible to select them as their party preference.

But what is the Alaska Independence Party?
I would encourage everyone who has an interest to surf over to the Alaska Independence Party website. (http://www.akip.org). It’s an opportunity for a good homeschooling moment on political science, the election process, and tracking down sources.

The Alaska Independence Party is remarkably mainstream. To characterize them as the “Weather Underground” of the frozen north is laughable. In fact, in 1990, the Alaska Independence Party nominated Walter Hickel for Governor. Hickel had been elected Governor of Alaska as a Republican in 1966, and in 1969 he was appointed US Secretary of the Interior. In 1990, he won the election for Governor of Alaska as the Independence Party Candidate, becoming one of only six third party candidates in US history to win a governor’s race (Jesse Ventura of MN, and Lowell Weicker of CT are two of the others). In 1994, the AIP nominated then Lt. Governor Coghill in the race for Governor. Coghill finished third, behind the Democratic winner Tony Knowles, and the Republican nominee Jim Campbell, but ahead of the Green Party and Patriot Party nominees.

hickel.jpg

Walter Hickel should be revered by the left.

In 1970 following the shooting of college students at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard, Hickel wrote a letter critical of Nixon’s Vietnam War policy and urging him to give more respect to the views of young people critical of the war. This dissent garnered worldwide media attention, and on Nov 25, 1970, Hickel was fired over the letter.[1]

In 2006 Hickel endorsed Sarah Palin in her bid to become governor. In 2008, he called for the resignation of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.

Somehow, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. managed to leave out of his Palin smear on the Huffington Post the fact that the Walter Hickel, candidate of the Alaska Independence Party, had actually been elected the Governor of Alaska in 1990.

Pretty radical stuff…

– Rob Shearer (aka RedHatRob)

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Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out

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There is at least one (probably many) article/entry in this book that will grab every reader and affect them deeply.

Our White House covers the history of the White House chronologically, from John Adams (the first president to reside there) down through George and Laura Bush. Some of you may remember that Laura Bush is a children’s librarian. The unique character of this book is that while many of the articles are first-person eyewitness accounts, an equal number have been contributed by a veritable who’s who of outstanding, award-winning children’s book authors and illustrators.

There are illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline, Brian Selznick, Peter Sis, and Seven Kellogg among others. Even if you do not recognize those names, trust me, they’re some of the best children’s illustrators of the last thirty years.

The narratives include:

  • Slaves helped Build the White House by Walter Dean Myers (two Newbery Honor books)
  • Thomas Jefferson by Milton Meltzer (numerous biographies)
  • From the Walls of the White House by Kathleen Krull (Lives of the Musicians, Lives of the Artists)
  • High Spirits in the Lincoln White House by Russell Freedman (Lincoln: A Photobiography)
  • The Eyes and Ears of the Public by Katherine Paterson (Bridge to Terabithia)
  • Storming Down the Stairs by Albert Marrin (Virginia’s General)
  • Executive Order to Nature by Jean Craighead George (Julie of the Wolves)
  • Hands by Patricia McLachlan (author of Sarah, Plain & Tall)
  • The White House, the Moon, and a Coal Miner’s Son by Homer Hickam (author of October Sky)

There are also numerous historical speeches and letters (by presidents and others)

  • Charles Dickens 1842 American Notes
  • Eisenhower’s Farewell Address to the Nation – 1961
  • My Room by Linda Johnson Robb
  • Robert F. Kennedy’s remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Nixon’s Final remarks to the White House Staff
  • Ronald Reagan’s Farewell Address to the Nation – 1989
  • Letter to George, Jeb, Neil, Marvin and Doro from George H.W. Bush – 1990

The artwork is lush, the format is large and colorful. The variety is intriguing and impressive.

Our White House is a hardback, 9.5″ x11″, 256 pages available directly from Greenleaf Press for $29.99

– Rob Shearer, Publisher
Greenleaf Press

Here’s the publisher’s blurb:

“Conceived and co-created by the National Children’s Book and Literary Alliance, this incomparable collection of essays, personal accounts, historical fiction, and poetry melds with an equally stunning array of original art to offer a multifaceted look at America’s history through the prism of the White House. Starting with a 1792 call for designers to plan a presidential mansion and continuing through the present day, OUR WHITE HOUSE takes in everything from the amusing antics of presidents’ children and pets to the drama of the White House ablaze and the specter of war; from the role of immigrants, African Americans, and Native Americans to the thoughts and actions of many presidents themselves. These highly engaging writings and illustrations, expressing varied viewpoints and interwoven with key historical events, are a vital resource for family sharing and classroom use — and a stirring reminder that the story of the White House is the story of every American. More than one hundred leading authors and illustrators donate their talents in a creative tour de force that is making history.”

National Politics, Tennessee politics

Some common sense economic advice from the Sage of Mt. Juliet

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A thoughtful community stalwart sent me the following in an email this morning. Mr. Fred Weyler of Mt. Juliet has the following observations:

______________________________________________________

My county trustee is raising my annual rent again. He says that my house is worth about four times what I paid for it. He also says that schools need 20% extra this year for school bus operation. I never had a school bus ride. I walked until I bought a bicycle. My classmates did, too. They had no obesity problems. It will take 14 of the 3 cent first class postage stamps I used to pay my first bills to send the trustee this year’s rent. The rent is higher despite my fixed income and my higher expenses, like more to fill my push mower than it cost to fill any of my first three cars. If I must sell my house to pay my bills, I face a capital gains tax even though my capital is now worth less.

Some people blame me, as a baby boomer, for wrecking Social Security. What a social circus! Twas not my choice, but FDR said I had to do it temporarily. Along the way, folks said I had to do it bigger and so did my employer. 16% of my pay would have made a huge IRA, but I had no choice. I could choose whether to pay big interest rates for a car and furniture or to walk a while longer and sleep on the floor until I could pay for furniture. Government knew that my retirement trust fund was more important than my start in this world. I sometimes worked two or three jobs to avoid big debt and big interest.

LBJ “borrowed” from my retirement trust fund to build housing in Chicago, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga and elsewhere, but not in my small town. I watched as it was trashed, then as the bulldozers hauled it off or buried it. Community organizers and congress urged banks to finance housing for the next generation from LBJs projects. Do not ask about income, assets, or jobs the way my mortgager asked me. Banks blindly made loans which they and the borrower knew could not be repaid and had insufficient collateral. They did not pay and the banks have worthless paper instead of capital.

Now they tell me that it is my responsibility to help the banks get going again and to help those who did not pay to stay in their houses. Who’s telling me?

Those same people who told the banks to make those blind loans, who make bank rules, and under whose oversight the laws are administered. They are advised by some of those folks who made millions bringing financial institutions to their ruin.

I am incensed that they wanted to take my money, then if it got paid back, take 20% of it for organizations like ACORN. Are they not the outfit which set new records of multiple voter registrations, deceased voter registration, cartoon character voter registration, and canine voter registration to elect the yahoos who now want more of my money?

Why do I feel like I’d find joy if Franks, Dodd, Pelosi, Reid, Bush, and Paulson were impeached for malfeasance of duty?

I worked hard in college. I worked harder in high school. It paid off. With my savings and scholarship, my college job paid the rest and I did not graduate with huge debt. My dad helped me get my bicycle to campus. I rode the bus to get home occasionally. My professors walked from their houses to the classroom. Now there are parking lots where their houses were.

I’d say that the financial system needs some help. Some ways to give it:

  • First, do nothing until you put a stop to the practices which brought on this situation. No need to throw more good money after bad.
  • Lower the capital gains tax. Lower the corporate tax rate. Watch how much money comes out of the mattresses to ease the credit crunch.
  • Share oil revenues with the states to encourage new production and watch investment soar, new jobs, more tax revenue, improved balance of payments, and lower gasoline prices. Encourage new nuclear power plants and oil refineries. You cannot amend the law of supply and demand. Let it dictate when entrepreneurs have electric cards on the road with new jobs in fast battery swap out and recharge stations and more tax revenues.
  • Prosecute the bums who led institutions to ruin. Put all their assets back into the system.
  • Pay off the national debt to reduce the cost of capital.
  • Make FICA follow the same solvency rules as you enforce upon pension funds. Deposit that $50 trillion or whatever the number is into banks so that they may
  • lend some of it with ample oversight, transparency, accounting and regulation.
  • Divert some funds away from Dept of Education. Quit expanding high school parking lots. Put some lard buns to work digging up those global warming parking lots to make room for bike racks and more grass and trees.

– Fred Weyler, Mt. Juliet, Tennessee

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John Smith & Daniel Boone: Escape Artists

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John Smith Escapes Again! By Rosalyn Schanzer is a great introduction for the elementary and middle school crowd to one of the most astonishing figures from early American history. Most Americans have only read his name in a line or two about the founding of Jamestown, or because he’s been a figure in a Disney movie which featured Pocahontas. A few of us can tell you of his miraculous escape from being executed by the Indians when the Indian princess intervened to deflect the wrath of her father, Chief Powhatan. But that story is only one of a dozen escapes from the colorful life of John Smith. He escaped from a dull life as a clerk in England by running away to sea. He escaped kidnapping, robbery, & shipwreck on his way to fight the Spanish in the Netherlands. He escaped drowning and death a second time by joining pirates while on his way to fight the Turks. He escaped capture and slavery when he was captured in battle and sold to a Tartar chieftain in central Asia. Facing Powhatan and the Indians in Virginia was easy compared to what he’d already been through! The story of John Smith & Pocahontas is retold in great detail and constitutes the bulk of the book (24 out of 64 pages), but it’s all the more enjoyable and we are able to appreciate the resourcefulness of Captain John Smith knowing of all his earlier adventures.

Why don’t we know more of John Smith’s story? The author gives the answer in a lengthy note at the end. During the Civil War, Henry Adams wrote a piece of war propaganda attacking Smith and branding him a liar and a braggart. It’s taken a hundred and forty years for his reputation to recover, but over the past few decades scholars have re-examined the record and confirmed almost all the details of Smith’s miraculous chain of escapes (most of which we know about only from Smith’s autobiography). Schantzer has done 14 books for young people, including another recent Greenleaf pick, George vs. George. This is an excellent introduction to colonial history for young people. John Smith Escapes Again!
Is a 64 page hardback, available directly from Greenleaf Press for $16.95.

Daniel Boone’s Great Escape by Michael P. Spradlin is an equally delightful tale of one of the great heroes of American Colonial history. 170 years after Captain John Smith, another explorer had an equally hair-raising adventure involving capture by the Indians, the threat of execution, and a daring escape. In 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, Boone was leading a group of hunters and settlers over the mountains, in the wilds of Kentucky. Taken captive by the Indians and carried off hundreds of miles, north of the Ohio river, he bides his time and prepares for a daring escape attempt. When he hears the Indians planning an attack on the settlement where his wife, children and grandchildren were living, he knows he must act. Swimming the Ohio River, and covering 160 miles in four days, he is able to elude the Indian braves pursuing him and reach the settlement of Boonesborough in time to warn them – saving them from being killed. The whole adventure is reported in his autobiography in only one sentence: “On the 16th, before sunrise, I departed in the most secret manner and arrived at Boonesborough on the 20th, after a journey of one hundred and sixty miles, during which I had but one meal.”


Spradlin’s simple text tells a vivid and exciting story. The illustrations by Ard Hoyt catch the movement, tension, and danger of the four-day chase through the woods and the joyful reunion at the end. Daniel Boone’s Great Escape
is a 32 pages hardback, available directly from Greenleaf Press for $16.95.

– Rob Shearer, Publisher
Greenleaf Press