Down the Big River

In 1805, two boys encounter vicious river pirates on their way to help settle the American Midwest. I am very pleased to offer another of Stephen W. Meader's beautifully-written historical adventures. A prominent theme of this novel is "Manifest Destiny," a driving force in 19th-century American politics and government. The credo of Manifest Destiny held that white Americans were divinely foreordained to push westward and settle the continent. This book presents an accurate portrayal of (and celebrates) some of the people caught up in that undertaking. But it is important to acknowledge that Manifest Destiny was an imperialist and racist idea that directly resulted in the displacement and death of thousands of indigenous North Americans, the theft of their homeland, and eventually the forced removal of their children to boarding schools that worked to strip them of their language and culture. - Summary by Warren Bergmann