Boyd Hartman

Steptoe Boyd Hartman

STEPTOE, The Victors and the Vanquished on the Trail to Oregon is perhaps the most compelling adventure story of America's Great Migration. The book deals in a historical context with the visions and ambitions of America's 11th President, President James Polk. Through war and the threat of war with Briton, France and Russia he claimed for America the vast lands of the west. He did so in disregard of the prior claims of hundreds of native tribes that would rise in revolt over the appropriation of their tribal lands. Steptoe in an adventure, romance setting tells the tale not only of the migration itself, but deals with the great national issues surrounding that migration. The story is told through the trials, adventures and romances of the Anderson and Rawlins families who with their fellow adventures helped settle the west and make America a super power among nations. Through the adventures of these families is also told the story of the loves and the conflicts between the migrants and the native population, a population whose way of life was forever destroyed. The heroes were many and they were both brown and white. This book puts the reader on the trail to Oregon and in the embrace of history.