In this episode of pplpod, we explore the real Daniel Boone, a man far more complicated than the frontier cartoon America inherited. The episode begins by tearing down the familiar image of Boone as a giant, antisocial woodsman in a coonskin cap. In reality, he was about average height, disliked coonskin caps, preferred wide-brimmed beaver felt hats, and was far more literate and politically engaged than the myth suggests. Born into a rebellious Quaker family in Pennsylvania in 1734, Boone’s life was shaped by his family’s break with the Quaker community, their move to the North Carolina frontier, and his early development as a hunter, reader, storyteller, and leader. The discussion follows his long hunting expeditions, his use of buckskins as frontier currency, and his growing obsession with Kentucky as a land of opportunity and danger.

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