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Pioneer Life
Frontier lands to the west beckoned American pioneers. Send your strongest people! Deliver your bravest souls! Come, test yourself—can you survive on the rugged, wild frontier?
From the early 1700s to the late 1800s, thousands of American pioneers answered the challenge and moved west. With ax and plow, they settled a vast wilderness. Their hard work and courage pushed the American frontier all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
Frontier life was difficult. Pioneers needed many skills just to survive. Life on the frontier meant living far from neighbors. It meant giving up markets, shops, schools, churches, and even news. Pioneers did without or made what they needed using simple tools.
Pocahontas
The year was 1608. The place was Virginia. Captain John Smith was about to die. Smith, a settler from England, had been captured by a Native American tribe. They had his head on a rock and were about to beat him with clubs.
Suddenly, the chief’s young daughter Pocahontas rushed up. She cradled Smith’s head in her arms. The clubs could not fall without hurting her, too. Pocahontas saved the handsome captain’s life.
At least, that’s how the story goes.
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon was the only American president ever to resign from office. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, won a second term in office by a landslide in 1972. But his involvement in a scandal forced him to leave the presidency in 1974.
EARLY LIFE
Richard Milhous Nixon was born in a small home in Yorba Linda, California, in 1913. Young Nixon had a strong drive to succeed. He worked his way through college, where he was elected president of the student body. He also won a scholarship to Duke University Law School in North Carolina.
Puritans
Today we think of Puritans as people who marched through history with stern, sour faces. But that's not quite the whole picture!
In the 1500s and 1600s, Puritan men and women belonged to a religious group that hoped to purify, or reform, the powerful Church of England. Most Puritans believed God wanted a simple church, without paintings and statues. They did not want control of the church in the hands of wealthy bishops appointed by the king.
Robert E. Lee
Who was the best general in the Civil War? Many historians believe it was the Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
Lee was born in Stratford, Virginia, on January 19, 1807. He came from a well-known Virginia family. His father, Henry Lee, had signed the Declaration of Independence and had been a military officer in the American Revolution. Lee attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated second in his class in 1829.