Ill-Fated Frontier is at once a pioneer adventure and a compelling narrative of the frictions that emerged among entrepreneurial pioneers and their sixty slaves, Indians fighting to preserve their land, and Spanish colonials with their own agenda. Here is a turbulent and visceral portrait of the wild American frontier in 1789 that begins with an optimistic plan and ends with the body of one of the expedition’s leaders returning to New Jersey pickled in a barrel of rum.

What happened in between lies at the center of this fascinating account by Harvard historian Samuel A. Forman. It is a startling and frank portrait of an emerging United States that examines the dream of an inclusive American experience and its reality—a debate that continues today.

Imperious Revolutionary War antihero General David Forman contrives a huge land grant at Natchez, Spanish West Florida. Intending to create a plantation empire, he entrusts his naive young cousin Samuel S. Forman and experienced overseer Benajah Osman to drive the general’s sixty enslaved African Americans across 2,400 dangerous frontier miles. The general chooses the same grueling overland and river trek as had Dr. Antoine Saugrain, a disastrous choice for the Frenchman. Proceeding from home in New Jersey, the Americans face abolitionist women and Chief Little Turtle’s relentless warriors. Enslaved matriarch Ginnie and her fellow unwilling pioneers toe the narrow line between loyalty to the masters and the temptation of freedom. At the new territory, the Formans encounter suave Spanish colonials and a colorful horde of expat settlers, while the enslaved take on the herculean labors of building the future Cotton Kingdom. Lively, impeccably researched, and rich in details that have escaped the usual tales of American growth and enterprise, Ill-Fated Frontier shines new and entertaining light on what it means to be an American.