Beardstown

When Americans created civilization from wilderness, there were those who followed the rules and those who created their own-an enduring conflict between liberty and virtue that formed a new land.

Five years have passed since the death of the Shawnee leader Tecumseh. The native peoples of the Midwest have been defeated, and the fertile soil of Illinois is up for grabs by a steady stream of opportunistic dreamers. The ones who get there first will shape this new America as it suits them-or so...