In the summer of 1807 more than a thousand subscribers from New England to Tennessee paid for the initial printing of "The Life and Travels of John Robert Shaw: A Narrative of the Life and Travels of the Well-Digger, now resident of Lexington, Kentucky, Written by Himself." Shaw had come to Rhode Island as a British redcoat to put down the colonial rebellion. Through various quirks of fate, including being taken a prisoner of war, he ended up fighting with the Americans. Shaw was an exuberant spirit whose rowdy drinking bouts and related predicaments alternated with periods of wholehearted...
In the summer of 1807 more than a thousand subscribers from New England to Tennessee paid for the initial printing of "The Life and Travels of John Ro...
