settler

Electronic Field Trip to Fort Harrod and Fort Boonesborough

Explore life on the Kentucky frontier in this KET field trip for grades 4-8. The program visits two reconstructed 18th-century settlements, Fort Harrod in Mercer County and Fort Boonesborough in Madison County, to learn why forts were a necessary part of the settlements; experience what it was like to attend the first school west of the Allegheny Mountains; and watch as blacksmiths, potters, weavers, and other craftspeople demonstrate the specialized skills needed for a settlement community to survive.

Other topics covered:

  • Why early settlers moved to Kentucky and the routes they traveled.
  • Barriers to exploration and settlement encountered by the settlers and factors that influenced where settlements were constructed.
  • The conflicts and compromises the settlers experienced in their interactions with Kentucky’s native peoples.
  • The hardships the settlers endured as they used the natural resources at hand to survive and establish communities on the frontier.
  • The unique culture created by the early settlers and how they forever changed the physical environment of the land they settled.

Grade Levels: 4-8
Resource Types: Video

Electronic Field Trip to Fort Harrod and Fort Boonesborough

Visits to two reconstructed 18th-century frontier forts—Fort Harrod in Mercer County and Fort Boonesborough in Madison County—explore how and why settlers came to Kentucky, the geographic factors that influenced where settlements grew, the conflict between white settlers and Native American tribes, and daily life on the frontier.

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The Program

Program Script

Following is a transcript of the narration from KET’s electronic field trip to two Kentucky frontier forts.

In the late 1700s, early settlers to Kentucky had to fight for their survival. They wanted land of their own on the frontier. They came from the east to claim the land and build up settlements out of the wilderness. Life was hard and dangerous. For many, their best hope for survival was in a fort.

Kentucky’s first settlement fort was Fort Harrod. It was built like other forts, designed to protect and defend the people inside in times of danger. Thick log doors and walls formed a rectangle with an inner courtyard. Inside was a miniature city with cabins, a blacksmith shop, and the basics for surviving on the frontier. From the second story of the corner blockhouses, guns poked through to fight off attacks from the British and Native Americans.

The British had promised the Native Americans in 1763 that the land was reserved for them and said no one could settle west of the Allegheny Mountains. Many groups of native people were familiar with the land we now know as Kentucky. They had a claim to the land, and they didn’t want other people taking it.

But still people were pushing west. Fur traders and explorers said Kentucky was a land with everything necessary for pioneer life: thick trees, rich soil, and abundant wildlife. James Harrod and Daniel Boone were among several men who were eager to establish settlements in Kentucky.

Harrod and his men came mostly by water—down the Ohio and Kentucky rivers. Explorer Daniel Boone came by land, following a trail made by buffalo and Native Americans—through the Cumberland Gap up the Wilderness Trail. As the Wilderness Trail widened, more and more people followed Daniel Boone’s route into Kentucky. Fort Boonesborough was established close to the Kentucky River. These forts, and smaller structures called stations, were the beginnings of today’s Kentucky towns.

Using tools and resources effectively was important to survival. Even fat from meat, called tallow, was used for making soap and candles. At first, settlers slept on straw beds on dirt floors with very few extras. They had only what they could bring on horseback or make themselves. Over time, cabins had wood floors, cooking pots, simple furniture, tools, and pole beds. It was impossible to bring everything on horseback, so settlers made a lot of things from scratch.

Early settlers had to be on guard in case of an attack. Traveling in groups and working together helped the early settlers claim the land.

Frontier life was dangerous. The first settlers were breaking a British treaty to leave the land as Indian reserve. In an attack, the second story of the corner blockhouses provided good locations for keeping watch and shooting.

Fort Harrod was built around a spring and close to another which provided water when the fort was under attack. Having enough water to outlast an attack was important. Fort Boonesborough was close to the Kentucky River, but getting to the river was sometimes impossible while under siege. They had to rely on stored water in an attack.

Guns weren’t the only weapons of choice. Gunpowder was too expensive to use all the time. Axes were used as weapons as well as tools. Pioneers adopted the small axe called the tomahawk from the Indians. It could be used both to cut down small trees and as a weapon. Early settlers practiced their skills in case of attack.

If an axe blade or other iron tool broke, the blacksmith could make the necessary repairs. The bellows is used to pump air into the fire to make it even hotter. Creating a finished piece requires heating, molding, bending, and hammering. The blacksmith was essential to an early settlement for repairing and making necessary items of iron.

Flint strikers were used in starting fires. Being able to start a fire was important for everyday life. Fire was necessary for cooking and tasks like making candles. Inside the forts, places for fire were shared. Sharing resources and working together helped the early settlers survive.

Most settlers didn’t often use money. They bartered. Bartering or trading one item for another was one way early settlers got what they needed. In trading an animal skin for a tomahawk, both people get something they needed or could at least trade or barter for something else. The Transylvania Store at Fort Boonesborough had many essentials for the settlers. Some settlers specialized in jobs and traded items they made such as pottery.

The ways of Native Americans influenced the settlers at the fort in their garden. Native Americans planted corn, beans, and squash and called them the “three sisters” for the way they grew well together. As more and more people came, hunting became even more difficult. People depended on their gardens for food, especially the corn.

Early settlers also grew flax to make linen. Linen and wool were spun into thread on the spinning wheel.

Children were expected to help on the frontier and did chores such as drawing water from the spring at Fort Harrod. The fortunate ones had school. Fort Harrod had the first school west of the Allegheny Mountains; Ms. Jane Coomes was the first teacher. The school was called a “blab school” because the children sang or blabbed to learn their alphabet or math facts. Wooden paddles called horn books were used. The children sat on crude wooden benches set on a dirt floor. The teacher said the holes between the logs in the schoolhouse gave the children “fresh air” even in cold weather.

Frontier life was not easy, but there were many changes in a short time. Little time passed from 1774 to 1792, when Kentucky became a state.

The early settlers at the forts cooperated in their fight for survival. Everyone worked together in the fight to survive attacks, and the early fort residents also had to fight to meet their basic needs for water, food, clothing, and shelter. Over time, most improved their living conditions by mastering specific skills and using the resources of the land.

At first, settlers claimed their land by using an axe to clear the trees and build a cabin. At night and in dangerous times, they would return to the safety of the fort.

Eventually, the settlers lived in their own cabins with conveniences and tools of the time. In less than 20 years from the settlement of these early forts, Kentucky became a state. The early settlers led others to Kentucky by their example. Soon their pathways and traditions were followed by more people who wanted to call Kentucky home.

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For Students

 

What's That?

Do these items look familiar? They were all part of daily life in the 18th century. See whether you can identify what the tool was used for. If you get stumped, just scroll down to the ANSWERS.

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ANSWERS

1. Swage Block
Pronunciation: [sweyj blok]

This large, heavy block of steel is used in blacksmithing. It has holes of various sizes and shapes in its face and usually has forms on the sides. The holes are used to hold one end of a piece of hot metal so the blacksmith can bend it or do other shaping. The scalloped sides help form shapes such as the curve of a wheel.

This swage block can be seen at the Fort Boonesborough smithy.

2. Stake or Spike Anvil
This smaller, lighter anvil was easier for pioneers to transport. The stake end could be driven into a large tree stump to make it stable.

This anvil is at the Fort Boonesborough smithy.

3. Hominy Block
This device was used to crack corn to create a coarse meal for making a simple cornbread known as “Johnny cakes.” The block was made from a section of tree trunk with one end hollowed out. The corn was placed in the resulting “bowl” and then crushed with a pestle. The pestle was a heavy piece of wood attached to a long tree limb with leather or rope. This arrangement acted as a spring to aid the person pounding the corn.

4. Flax Hackle
Flax is a plant with tough fibers in its stem that are used to make a cloth called linen. The flax stalks were harvested, tied in bundles, and submerged in a stream so the fleshy part of the stalks would rot away. Then the stalks were cleaned, beaten to soften the fibers, and pulled across this dangerous-looking tool. The process, called “hacking the flax,” further softened, cleaned, and straightened the fibers.

5. Candle Mold
Pioneers used molds like this one, a series of metal tubes fit within a frame, to make candles. A wick was placed in each tube, and melted tallow or another kind of wax was then poured into the tubes to harden. Because air bubbles often became trapped in the molds, candles made in this way were considered inferior to “dipped” candles.

In the dipping method, lengths of wick are suspended from a bar or frame and then dipped over and over into a kettle of melted wax. The wax gradually builds up in layers around the wick, creating a very smooth and symmetrical candle surface. But dipping takes much longer, so most “everyday” candles were molded.

6. Rush Light
This primitive lighting device consists of a metal clamp mounted on a stand. A dried plant stalk, such as a reed, a rush, or the mullein shown here, was dipped in tallow or beeswax, clamped into place, and lighted.

7. Blacksmith Bellows
In this picture, a blacksmith apprentice at Fort Boonesborough uses the bellows. This simple air pump blows oxygen into the fire, making it burn hotter so that metal can be heated to the right temperature. Early bellows were made of a “bag” of leather attached to two flat wooden paddles that were joined with a hinge at one end. When the paddles were pressed together, they would squeeze air out of the leather bag through a nozzle close to the base of the fire. In this example, the bellows is very large and is fastened in a wooden frame with a handle that allows the blacksmith to squeeze air out by pumping the handle.

8. Reel or Weasel
This reel, often called a weasel, is for measuring yarn. The gears inside the spoked wheel cause it to click every two complete turns of the wheel and make a “pop” sound after the desired length of yarn is reached. Although not all experts agree, some people think that the title of the nursery rhyme “Pop Goes the Weasel” refers to this device.

9. Flint Striker
A flint striker is a piece of steel used for starting fires. It is often shaped in a curve to fit the hand. As the name indicates, it is used by striking it sharply against a piece of flint to produce a shower of sparks. A striker like this one was an essential part of a typical pioneer fire kit.

10. Shave Horse and Drawknife
This woodworker is planing a piece of wood to make a stool leg. He sits on a foot-controlled vise or clamp called a shave horse, which holds the piece of wood he is working on. He then planes the wood with a two-handled bladed tool called a drawknife. He pulls the knife toward him to plane off long shavings of wood.

11. Spinning Wheel
This woman is making thread from wool. First the wool was sheared from sheep, cleaned, and carded. Then the woman holds the wool in her hand and wraps a little of it around the spindle. She spins the large wheel as she walks backward from the spindle, causing the spindle to spin and twist the wool fibers into thread. Other animal hair and plant fibers can be spun this same way.

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Vocabulary

anvil – a heavy block of iron or steel with a flat top, and often a rounded “horn,” on which hot metals are shaped by hammering. A stake (or spike) anvil is a smaller, lighter-weight anvil that was easier for pioneers to transport. The stake end could be driven into a large tree stump to stabilize the anvil.

barn loom – (sometimes called a barn-frame loom:) a device used to weave cloth. In the barn type, the frame is made of posts and beams, much like old timber-framed barns. It is held together with removable wooden pegs, allowing it to be taken apart and stored when not in use. Threads called “warp” threads are threaded through and attached to the loom mechanism. As the loom is worked, the weaver slides a shuttle attached to “weft” threads across and through the warp threads to weave the piece of fabric.

barter – another word for “trade.” On the frontier, money was often not available, so settlers would trade with one another for the things they needed. For example, a hunter might pay the blacksmith for fixing his broken tomahawk blade by trading him a bear or elk hide.

beater – the part of a barn loom that separates the warp threads, keeping them evenly spaced and untangled. The weaver uses the beater to pack each newly woven weft thread tightly into the fabric.

bellows – a device used by a blacksmith to blow air into the fire being used to heat metal. This primitive air pump blew more oxygen into the fire, making it burn much hotter. Early bellows were made of a “bag” of leather attached to two flat wooden paddles that were connected at one end by a hinge. When the paddles were pressed together, they would squeeze air out of the leather bag through a nozzle close to the base of the fire. A blacksmith’s bellows was usually very large and was fastened in a wooden frame with a handle that allowed the blacksmith to squeeze the bellows by pumping the handle, much as you might use the handle of a bicycle pump.

betty lamp – (from the German word besser, meaning “better”) a source of light for early settlers. Made of pottery or a metal such as tin, it contained oil or tallow (animal fat) as fuel. The wick could have been a reed, a piece of string, or a piece of rag. These lamps were often hung from a metal or wooden stand.

blockhouse – a strongly built two-story building located at the corner of a fort. The second story is wider than the one beneath, causing it to jut out over the fort walls and making it easier to watch for enemies and fire weapons. The blockhouse has windows with heavy wooden shutters and loopholes for firing weapons. Blockhouses were sometimes built as stand-alone fortifications for small villages of settlers called stations.

candle mold – a series of metal tubes attached to a frame. A wick was placed in each tube, and melted tallow or another kind of wax was then poured into the tubes to make candles. Because air bubbles often became trapped in the molds, candles made in this way were considered inferior to “dipped” candles.

charcloth – cloth that has been specially prepared by heating it to a high temperature without air so that it can easily be lit with just a spark. A common part of a pioneer’s firestarter kit, the charcloth was used to catch and hold sparks produced by a flint striker and flint. Once lit, the charcloth was put in a “nest” of tinder and was breathed on to help it catch fire.

Cumberland Gap – a major break in the Appalachian mountain chain carved by wind and water. Large game animals used the gap as a migratory route for centuries. Native Americans followed their trail, creating the “Warrior’s Path.” In 1750, Dr. Thomas Walker, a surveyor for the Loyal Land Company, became the first European to explore, describe, and document the route to the gap. He named it in honor of William, Duke of Cumberland, brother of King George II. In 1775, Daniel Boone was commissioned by the Transylvania Company to blaze a road through the gap. Boone’s Trace then evolved into the Wilderness Road. The discovery and use of Cumberland Gap released a flood of settlers into the lands of America’s interior.

drawknife – a carpenter’s tool consisting of a thick bar of steel that is beveled and sharpened on one edge like the cutting edge of a chisel or plane. The blade has a wooden handle on either end, attached at right angles. The carpenter grasps the handles with the blade facing him and pulls it along a piece of wood toward his body. This action will shave or plane a long strip off the piece of wood. The amount of wood removed in a stroke depends on the angle at which the knife is held and the force applied. This tool is very useful for removing bark and quickly shaping a piece to use in making furniture or tools.

flax – a plant with blue flowers and tough, fibrous stems. Settlers used the fibers to make linen cloth.

flint – a naturally fine-grained form of the mineral quartz. This very hard rock produces sharp, glass-like edges when fractured, and early Native Americans used it to make very sharp arrowheads, knives, and other cutting tools. When flint is struck hard with a piece of steel, it also produces sparks. Pioneers used it for starting fires and igniting (lighting) the powder in early guns.

flintlock rifle – a type of gun in which a piece of shaped flint is securely clamped to the “hammer” or “lock.” A steel “pan” located beneath and slightly in front of the lock holds some of the black powder loaded into the gun. When the gun is fired, the hammer falls, causing the flint to strike the steel pan. The resulting sparks ignite the gunpowder, which discharges the weapon. The flintlock rifles used by pioneers such as Daniel Boone were expertly crafted and were considered some of the most accurate weapons of the time.

flint striker – a piece of steel used for starting fires, often shaped in a curve to fit the hand. As the name indicates, it was used by striking it sharply against a piece of flint to produce a shower of sparks.

fire kit – a water-resistant container, often made of tin, used to carry the tools and materials necessary to start a fire. The usual contents (see definitions) were a steel flint striker, a piece of flint, fragments of charcloth (sometimes known simply as char), and a handful of tinder.

fort – (from the Latin word fortis, meaning “strong”) a structure such as a wall or a combination of strong buildings and walls built for defensive purposes. Forts Boonesborough and Harrod both had tall, strong log walls surrounding them to protect the settlers from attack by French and Native American war parties who didn’t want the settlers on their land. Words with similar meanings include fortress and fortification.

froe – a tool made of a fairly thick iron or steel blade, sharpened on one side, with a wooden handle attached at a right angle to the blade. It was used for splitting thick pieces of wood into thinner slabs and was especially useful for making wooden roof shingles known as “shakes.” The blade was laid at the end of a piece of log and was then driven into and through the wood with a maul. The handle was used as a lever to help split the piece of wood in two.

groundhog kiln – a primitive kiln (an oven used for “firing” pieces of pottery) made by burrowing into the side of a hill. The cave-like hole was then lined with stone or brick. A chimney allowed smoke to escape, and wood or charcoal was used as fuel. This type of kiln was probably used by the potters in both forts. It was called a groundhog kiln because a groundhog (or woodchuck) is a kind of mammal that burrows back into a hill to make its home.

hackle – a board with large metal spikes driven through it which looks like a very scary hairbrush. It was used to straighten and clean the fibers from the stalks of flax plants, which were then spun to make linen cloth.

hominy block – a kind of wooden mortar and pestle used to crack corn to create a coarse meal for making simple cornbread such as Johnny cakes. The block was made from a section of tree trunk with one end hollowed out. The corn was placed in the resulting “bowl.” The pestle, a heavy piece of wood, was attached with leather or rope to a long tree limb. The other end of the limb was anchored in the ground or a frame, turning it into a “spring” that made it easier to apply the force necessary to crack corn kernels.

inkwell – a small bottle used to hold ink to be used with a quill pen, a common writing instrument in Colonial times. It could be made of various materials, such as pottery or glass, and had a heavy bottom to make it stable. A potter at a fort probably would have made inkwells as well as other containers.

Johnny cake – a simple type of cornbread made from coarse cornmeal like that produced using a hominy block. Its main ingredients were cornmeal, water, salt, and butter or grease.

linsey woolsey – a rough fabric made of a mixture of linen and wool. This cloth was often worn by pioneers because of the ease of getting the raw materials and its strength and durability.

linen – originally, a cloth made from the flax plant, a fairly common crop in the colonies and on the frontier. The meaning of the word has since been expanded to include similar cloth made of cotton or cloth goods such as napkins or sheets made of such fabric.

loophole – a small window cut into a blockhouse or fort wall, just large enough to aim and shoot a musket or rifle through without exposing the shooter to enemy fire.

maul – a primitive hammer-like tool, similar to a mallet, used to strike a chisel or froe when working wood. It consists of a length of wood with a handle whittled into one end. Wood with a knot or burl and wood from the roots of trees were often used to make mauls because their tough grains prevent them from splitting when they are used to strike a metal tool.

puncheon – a log split in half. The flat side was usually planed or smoothed in some way to remove splinters. Puncheons were used instead of planks where no sawmill was available to make finished lumber. In Benjamin Van Cleve’s description of Fort Harrod, he said the doors and shutters of the cabins were made of puncheons, as were some of the floors.

reel – or weasel – a yarn-measuring device consisting of a spoked wheel attached to gears. As the wheel is turned, the yarn winds onto it. The gears cause the reel to make a “pop” sound after the desired length of yarn is measured—a possible source of the nursery rhyme title “Pop Goes the Weasel.”

rush light – a primitive lighting device consisting of a metal clamp mounted on a stand. A dried plant stalk such as a reed, rush, or mullein was dipped in grease, tallow, or beeswax; clamped into place; and lit.

settlement – a community such as a village or town started by a group of people (known as settlers) who move far from home but keep ties with their state or country of origin. Harrodstown (later Harrodsburg) and Boonesborough were both 18th-century settlements in Kentucky which were protected by their respective forts.

shaving horse – a primitive foot vise or clamp that consists of a timber bench with a wooden lever and jaw assembly attached to one end. The woodworker straddles the bench, facing the lever assembly, and puts his/her foot against the bottom of the lever to provide the force to clamp a piece of wood into position. The operator can then easily hold the wood while using a drawknife or other tool to shape it.

shuttle – a tool used by a weaver to slide the weft thread between the warp threads on the loom. Shuttles are shaped with tapered ends, something like the hull of a boat, and polished so they will easily slide along the threads from one side of the loom to the other.

skein – a length of thread or yarn wound in a loose, long coil. A skein was often measured using a device called a reel or weasel.

swage block – a large, heavy block of steel used in blacksmithing. It has various sizes of holes in its face, used to hold the end of a piece of hot metal for bending or other shaping, and the sides are scalloped to help form shapes such as the curve of a wheel.

station – a small settlement of just a few cabins with a strongly built (fortified) blockhouse used for the protection of the settlers.

tallow – grease from animal fat. It was used for many purposes on the frontier, including candle making or lubricating machine parts such as wagon wheels.

three sisters – a term used to refer to the Native American habit of growing corn (maize), beans, and squash together. The stalks of corn provided the supports for the bean vines to grow on, while the squash vines grow on the ground around the corn and beans, smothering out weeds and holding in moisture.

tinder – a very flammable material, such as pine or cedar bark, used as part of a firestarter kit.

tomahawk – a small axe used by both Native Americans and European settlers for a variety of purposes: as a tool for chopping or whittling wood, as a metal striker used with flint to start a fire, or as a weapon for hand-to-hand combat or throwing. By the end of the 1600s, militia infantrymen began carrying them instead of swords.

tree nails – wooden pegs used instead of iron nails or spikes in pioneer construction. Iron nails were hard to come by on the frontier, and it was much easier to carve wooden pegs from the plentiful supply of timber available to the pioneers.

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Links

Places from the Field Trip

Fort Boonesborough State Park
Old Fort Harrod State Park

Exploring Kentucky and Frontier History

Kentucky Historical Society
Check out this site to learn how to access a host of resources related to Kentucky’s history.
Filson Historical Society
The Filson Historical Society, located in Louisville, maintains a large library of historical resources, including many primary source materials, covering the period from the era of the pioneers to the Civil War. It is free and open to the public and offers various activities and packages for school trips. Call (502) 635-5083 for additional information and reservations.
Kentucky Virtual Library
This wonderfully comprehensive online research tool provides access to major libraries and resources throughout the state.
Tracking the Buffalo: Stories from a Buffalo Hide Painting
This site from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History encourages students to explore the lives of Native Americans and the role of the buffalo in their cultures through legends and artwork. The “You Be the Historian” section lets students experience how historians use primary sources by actively interpreting a buffalo hide to learn about the lives of Northern Plains Indians.

Ideas for Teachers

Kentucky Humanities Council
This site includes information on teaching resources, Kentucky Chautauqua performance booking, grants, book suggestions, and more.
Library of Congress Educators’ Site
National Endowment for the Humanities
The NEH site is an excellent source for social studies lesson plans and classroom materials.
Read • Write • Think
The International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English collaborated on this huge collection of ideas for incorporating writing into lessons in a wide variety of subject areas, including social studies.
National Geographic Society
This site includes lesson plans tied to national geography standards, maps, and many other education resources.

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Teaching Tools

 

Viewing Guide: Fill in the Blanks

How well did you listen to the Electronic Field Trip to Fort Harrod and Fort Boonesborough?
Try this fill-in-the-blank exercise to test yourself. Here is a printable Viewing Guide-Fill in the Blanks.

Kentucky’s first settlement fort was                      .

The British had promised the Native Americans in 1763 that the land was reserved for them and said no one could settle west of the                       Mountains.

Many groups of                       were familiar with the land we now know as Kentucky. They had a claim to the land.

Fur traders and explorers said Kentucky was a land with everything necessary for pioneer life: thick trees, rich soil, and abundant                      .

Captain James Harrod and his men came mostly by water—down the Ohio and                       rivers.

Explorer Daniel Boone came by land, following a trail made by buffalo and Native Americans—through the Cumberland Gap up the                      .

Woodcarvers made furniture, tools, plows, and handles for tools. The woodcarver seen in the video is making a                      .

Fat from meat, called                      , was used for making soap and candles.

Bark from trees could be soaked and woven to make                      .

Fort Harrod was built around a                       and close to another which provided water when the fort was under attack.

Fort Boonesborough was close to the                       River.

The small axe called a                       could cut down small trees or be used as a weapon.

If anything made of iron broke, the                       fixed it.

Fires were started with flint and                      .

Trading an animal skin for a tomahawk is an example of                      .

A                       would make jars the settlers needed to can and store food.

Native Americans planted corn,                      , and squash and called them the “three sisters” because they grew well together.

At the                      , corn is smashed into cornmeal.

Early settlers grew flax to make                      .

A                       weaves threads to make cloth.

                      had the first school west of the Allegheny Mountains.

Wooden paddles called                       were used in frontier schools.

The early settlers at the forts                       in their fight for survival.

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Multiple-Choice Questions

Here is a printer-friendly version of Multiple-Choice Questions.

  1. The first English-speaking fort west of the Allegheny Mountains was
      1. Fort Logan
      2. Fort Benjamin
      3. Fort Boonesborough
      4. Fort Harrod
  2. Many settlers came to Kentucky in the late 18th century because
      1. they were looking for coal
      2. they were looking for land of their own
      3. they were looking for work
      4. they wanted to build schools
  3. Captain James Harrod’s group traveled to Kentucky by way of
      1. the Cumberland Gap
      2. wagon train from the east
      3. horseback from the west
      4. water from the north
  4. The Cumberland Gap is
      1. a waterfall on the northern tip of Kentucky
      2. a formation at Red River Gorge where pioneers stopped to rest
      3. a passageway between the Appalachian Mountains
      4. a nickname for the Wilderness Trail
  5. The Cumberland Gap is on Kentucky’s
      1. southeast border with Tennessee
      2. southwest border with Missouri
      3. northern border with Ohio
      4. northeastern border with West Virginia
  6. The Wilderness Trail was widened by a group led by
      1. James Harrod
      2. Daniel Boone
      3. George Rogers Clark
      4. Simon Kenton
  7. Which of the following is not a reason people built forts?
      1. They needed extra protection from attack.
      2. They needed support in getting started on the frontier.
      3. They hoped to live in the forts for their entire lives.
      4. They were scouting for land of their own.
  8. Forts built in Kentucky were commonly made
      1. of wood, with a rectangular shape
      2. of wood, with a triangular shape
      3. of packed mud surrounding caves
      4. of overlapping rocks
  9. The Wilderness Trail was probably first used by
      1. Daniel Boone and his group
      2. James Harrod and his group
      3. the Native Americans and buffalo
      4. Simon Kenton
  10. The Transylvania Company hired Daniel Boone to
      1. widen the Wilderness Trail so horses and eventually wagons could pass
      2. keep people from coming west of the Allegheny Mountains
      3. fight the Native Americans
      4. find a better route than the Wilderness Trail
  11. The Transylvania Company signed the 1775 Treaty of Sycamore Shoals with
      1. Shawnee chiefs
      2. Cherokee chiefs
      3. Mohawk chiefs
      4. Iroquois chiefs
  12. The Treaty of Sycamore Shoals was an attempt by the Transylvania Company to purchase the land we know as Kentucky from a Native American tribe by trading
      1. money and goods like clothing and food
      2. land farther west
      3. farmland in the east
      4. gold
  13. The Iroquois, Shawnee, and Cherokee
      1. hunted on the land we know as Kentucky
      2. wanted people to come from the east to Kentucky
      3. lived far away from Kentucky
      4. refused to fight the frontiersmen
  14. The person who used fire and muscle to repair tools and make new ones was the
      1. potter
      2. weaver
      3. blacksmith
      4. leader
  15. Most early forts and settlements had
      1. teachers
      2. doctors
      3. carpenters
      4. blacksmiths
  16. A big reason for the location of Fort Harrod was the presence of
      1. the Wilderness Trail
      2. two springs for water
      3. coal on the hillside
      4. nearby towns
  17. A diary of William Calk, a pioneer to Kentucky in 1775, is known as
      1. a secondary source
      2. an irrelevant source
      3. a journalistic source
      4. a primary source
  18. The hornbook was a wooden paddle carved or painted
      1. to give farming instruction to pioneers
      2. with ABCs, numbers, and often the Lord’s Prayer
      3. with recipes for pioneer kitchens
      4. with animals and was used in discipline
  19. The first school in Kentucky was at
      1. Fort Logan
      2. Fort Boonesborough
      3. Fort Harrod
      4. Fort Campbell
  20. Barter is
      1. exchanging money to purchase needed items
      2. trading goods or services to get needed items
      3. losing money through a bad deal
      4. how you look for a job
  21. The British, French Canadians, and Native Americans were three groups who
      1. helped encourage more settlements in Kentucky
      2. carried information between the forts
      3. attacked the forts
      4. established forts in Kentucky
  22. In the 18th century, people came to Kentucky because of
      1. gold for trade, forests for timber, and soil for farming
      2. game for hunting, forests for timber, and soil for farming
      3. coal for steam engines, gold for trade, and soil for farming
      4. forests for timber, gasoline for machines, and soil for farming
  23. In 1774 and 1775, people changed the physical environment in Kentucky to meet their needs by
      1. living in caves
      2. using boats to come down the river
      3. building forts, cabins, and roads
      4. teaching children to read
  24. Kentucky became a state in
      1. 1792
      2. 1775
      3. 1774
      4. 1811
  25. Native Americans and 18th-century settlers relied on three crops. The Native Americans called them the “three sisters” because they could be grown close together. The three crops were
      1. beans, squash, and pumpkins
      2. squash, pumpkins, and lettuce
      3. apples, corn, and beans
      4. corn, beans, and squash

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