Devil's Backbone, The: The Story of the Natchez Trace

by Jonathan Daniels

Overview

With a history as dark and bloody as any in our nation, the Natchez Trace has always been more than just a thoroughfare. Growing out of a need for a return route for flatboats that floated down the Mississippi, the Trace winds up from Natchez, Mississippi, through Alabama and ends in Nashville, Tennessee.

From the start, the Natchez Trace was alive with rugged pioneers, politicians, ladies of fashion, settlers, soldiers, and robbers. You'll learn about the trail and the notable figures who traversed it, such as Aaron Burr, Andrew Jackson, George Washington, Daniel Boone, and Meriwether Lewis, whose death on the Trace is still a mystery.

Leading all the way to Texas, the Natchez Trace was the road for troops going to the Battle of New Orleans, the path walked by the men who were to die at the Alamo, and an escape route for slaves.

The Devil's Backbone is chock full of the ever-changing parade of travelers along the Natchez Trace. The author tells the story of the people who built America, crossing a wilderness to create a nation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455603510
Publisher:	Pelican Publishing Company, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/23/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	674 KB

About the Author

Jonathan Daniels was a Southern liberal born with writing in his blood. The son of Josephus Daniels, the owner of the News and Observer, a Raleigh, North Carolina, newspaper, he began writing and editing at a young age. While studying for his BA and MA in English at the University of North Carolina, he edited the Daily Tar Heel. After graduating he wrote for the Louisville Times in Kentucky and later decided to study law. He enrolled in Columbia Law School where he wrote The Crash of Angels, for which he won a Guggenheim Award in creative writing. He did not graduate from Columbia, but did pass the North Carolina bar exam. In 1923 he returned to the News and Observer, and from 1925 to 1928 served as the Washington correspondent for the paper. During the Depression he wrote for Fortune magazine, and has contributed to Harper's and The Saturday Evening Post. Following in his father's footsteps he became editor of the News and Observer in 1948 and also helped friends start the newspaper the Island Packet in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. From 1942 to 1945, Mr. Daniels was an administrative assistant to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, working on wartime projects such as The Tennessee Valley Authority. Later he became the press secretary for a portion of Roosevelt's term, as well as the beginning of Harry Truman's term. From 1947 to 1953, Mr. Daniels represented the United States on the United Nations Subcommission for the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities. In 1967 he was awarded the North Carolina Award for Literature, and in 1981 he passed away. With more than twenty books under his belt, Mr. Daniels continued the tradition of writing and journalism in his family. In addition to being a writer, he was an editor, a public servant, and a historian. He is considered an expert on the Old and New South. The Devil's Backbone: The Story of the Natchez Trace is the story of a trail traveled by thousands as the continent of America was being explored and settled. The Natchez Trace was traversed by a variety of characters from Andrew Jackson and Meriwether Lewis, to soldiers and pioneers forging a new world, to the lowlifes and ruthless thieves settlers sometimes encountered in the westward expansion.