Follow the River

The events of Follow the River occur in the context of the French and Indian War. Lasting from 1754 to 1763, the French and Indian War was a complex conflict between European imperial powers and Indigenous Americans over trade and territory in the New World. The name of the conflict is a reference to the alliance between French colonialists and some Indigenous American tribes against British colonialists. The French and Indian War was one part of a larger imperial conflict between the French and the British known as the Seven Years’ War.

The key events of this war that impact the plot of Follow the River are the conflicts between the French, the British, and Indigenous Americans at Fort Duquesne and Jumonville. In February 1754, at the advice of then Major George Washington, the British began building Fort Prince George, or Trent’s Fort, where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River in modern-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to secure the region for British trade routes. In April 1754, a large French force arrived to destroy the unfinished fort and build their own, Fort Duquesne, on the location. Washington was on his way to defend Trent’s Fort when he encountered French Canadian forces in nearby Jumonville. Washington’s troops and Indigenous American allies fought the French Canadians and won the battle. The conflict caused an escalation in tension between the French and British empires and, according to some historians, was the beginning of the Seven Years’ War (Preston, David. “When Young George Washington Started a War.” Smithsonian Magazine, Oct. 2019).

The following year, in July 1755, British General Edward Braddock attempted to retake Fort Duquesne by crossing the Monongahela River with his troops. They were routed by French and Indigenous American troops, and Braddock died of a gunshot wound in the battle. Gretel, the old “German” woman with whom Mary travels, describes how she was living near Fort Duquesne when “Indians, Francemens, kill whole English army by there” (90). It is in the context of this battle that Gretel was captured by the Shawnee, allies of the French, as the Germans, then part of the Prussian empire, were allied with the British.

Based on a real-life woman, the main character in Follow the River, Mary Draper Ingles, is originally from Philadelphia. Mary’s parents come from County Donegal, Ireland, which at the time is a colony of Great Britain. For this reason, as well as their last name, Mary and Will are referred to as “English” by the Shawnee and Cherokee in Follow the River. At the beginning of the book, Mary lives in Draper’s Meadows with her husband, Will. According to historical records, the real-life Drapers were sold the land in 1750 by Irish land speculator Colonel James Patton and were some of the first European settlers in the area, present-day Blacksburg, Virginia.

The escalation of the conflict between the French and British imperial powers and the defeat of Braddock’s troops at Fort Duquesne contributed to the raid of Draper’s Meadows by the Shawnee in July 1755 where Mary, her sister-in-law, Bettie, and her two sons were captured as hostages, as depicted in the opening chapter of Follow the River. As described from Mary’s point of view in the book, “So there really was a war with the French and Indians, as Colonel Washington had told Mr. Patton […] A war. Whole armies and little settlements” (90-91). After the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, Colonel (later General) Washington became the first president of the United States in 1789.