MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Unlike the stories Otto Rank collected about national heroes, the foundational legends of the nascent American republic are markedly lacking, presumably because the newly established country was allergic to stories featuring descent from kings, pretty much a requirement for Rank. However, casting about for hero tales of that period immediately brings our attention to Daniel Boone. Boone, who was born in 1734, played a significant role in the exploration of Kentucky and the western frontier. He is not well known today, but was from 1964-1970 the subject of a popular television program starring Fess Parker. However, the mythology of Daniel Boone was interesting even before the TV show. In 1784 John Filson published a life of Boone, creating a character who became “the archetypal hero of the American frontier, … the man who made the wilderness safe for democracy” (Slotkin 268-269). Yet aspects of Boone’s life were omitted from Filson’s account, including an important story about his wife. When hunting one night, Boone used a torch to attract deer. He saw a glimmer of light and prepared to fire, but “some intuition stayed him. He pushed aside the brush, and discovered Rebecca, who turned and fled” (Slotkin 299). Slotkin speculates this story was excluded in part because of its relation to an Indian creation myth. With the reintroduction of such stories about Rebecca Boone, Filson’s story would nicely satisfy the requirements for Campbell’s monomyth, and these stories were widely known, suggesting that the eighteenth century American republic did in fact possess a hero tale. Interestingly, the 1956 Daniel Boone for Little Golden Books hews exactly to the line set by Filson. However, “How to Become a Goddess,” the penultimate episode of the Daniel Boone television series, provides a tale that explicitly relates Rebecca Boone to a Native American fertility ritual.