'The Pioneers' by David McCullough

David McCullough is best known to most readers for his popular biographies of some of the most prominent names in American history ...

Occasionally, though, he delves into the lives of historically significant people whose names likely aren't familiar to most Americans.
That's the case with his latest book, The Pioneers, which tells the story of the 17th- and 18th-century settlers who set out to start lives in the Northwest Territory, the region of the country that is now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and much of the Upper Midwest.

The Pioneers begins with the story of a man named Manasseh Cutler, a New England pastor who played a key role in the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which created the Northwest Territory and prohibited slavery anywhere within it. The anti-slavery language in the ordinance had been far from a sure thing, and Cutler had lobbied hard for its inclusion. The resulting ordinance, McCullough writes, "stands alongside the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence as a bold assertion of the rights of the individual."

McCullough recounts the first voyage by New Englanders to the Northwest Territory beautifully, detailing the sometimes difficult but ultimately successful trip to what's now Marietta, Ohio: "As long and arduous as was so much of the journey, there had been no loss of life, nor, as plainly evident, no loss of spirit."

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/08/721352662/the-pioneers-dives-deep-into-lives-of-northwest-territory-settlers