Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 203 



person of the utmost importance. There was but 

 one thing that all could have in any quantity, and 

 that was land; each had all of this he wanted for 

 the taking, or if it was known to belong to the 

 Indians, he got its use for a few trinkets or a flask 

 of whiskey. A few of the settlers still kept some of 

 the Presbyterian austerity of character, as regards 

 amusements ; but, as a rule, they were fond of horse- 

 racing, drinking, dancing, and fiddling. The corn- 

 shuckings, flax-pullings, log-rollings (when the 

 felled timber was rolled off the clearings), house- 

 raisings, maple-sugar-boilings, and the like were 

 scenes of boisterous and light-hearted merriment, 

 to which the whole neighborhood came, for it was 

 accounted an insult if a man was not asked in to 

 help on such occasions, and none but a base churl 

 would refuse his assistance. The backwoods people 

 had to front peril and hardship without stint, and 

 they loved for the moment to leap out of the bounds 

 of their narrow lives and taste the coarse pleasures 

 that are always dear to a strong, simple, and prim- 

 itive race. Yet underneath their moodiness and 

 their fitful light-heartedness lay a spirit that when 

 roused was terrible in its ruthless and stern inten- 

 sity of purpose. 



Such were the settlers of the Watauga, the 

 founders of the commonwealth that grew into the 

 State of Tennessee, who early in 1772 decided that 

 they must form some kind of government that 

 would put down wrong-doing and work equity be- 

 tween man and man. Two of their number already 



