THE LAND BREAKERS by JOHN EHLE (1964)

When you think about it, if you think about it, you must realize how much grit and endurance and courage and plain hard work it took for the early settlers of America to turn a largely untouched wilderness of a continent into the farms and settlements and cities of a "civilized" country. Because of terrain and inaccessibility, some regions were harder to tame than others, for example the Appalachian region described in this excellent novel of early America. The Land Breakers gives the reader a look at what extraordinary efforts it took for these pioneers to survive and sometimes to succeed.

The story centers on Mooney Wright who comes in 1779 to what is now North Carolina with his wife, a few tools, a rifle, some seeds, a horse, a cow, three pigs, four chickens, and a dog. Ehle describes every task, in detail, that is required to build a cabin and shelter for the animals and to ready the rocky land for planting. The hard physical work from first daylight until dark and the winds of winter prove too much for his wife, and her death leaves him alone in the valley, until new settlers arrive.

The remainder of the book concerns the interactions of the characters in what becomes a small, far-flung settlement, but always paramount is the efforts involved in daily living. To plant a field, they must cut some trees, remove the surface rocks, ready the land with hand-hewn plows and a horse, and plant by hand. To replace worn-out shoes they must kill a deer, tan the hide, cut the shape, and sew it together with strips of the leather. To replace worn out clothes, they must plant flax and harvest it (for linen) or sheer sheep (if they have them), spin the thread, weave the cloth, and sew the garment with a hand-carved needle. Every task that is made easy for us today demands several steps and much ingenuity for the pioneers. In addition to the daily difficulties of life, they must contend with the dangers of the environment. One of the most exciting events in the novel is the hunt up and down the mountains for a rogue bear.

Ehle's prose style is generally non-obtrusive, but it is exact and sometimes nears lyrical when he is describing the wild landscape. This is an impressive account of the making of America.