Chapter Summary Of Jeff Bigger's Down From The Mountain
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In chapter 3, “Down from the Mountain,” of Jeff Biggers’s, the United States of Appalachia, the author describes the overall events that led up to the battle of Kings Mountain. The American forces were terribly outnumbered and out gunned. The American Revolution was spreading to the southern colonies and the Appalachian area. The scattered southern militias were just not enough to defeat the British army. Isaac Shelby was appointed by Thomas Jefferson to lead the recently joined militias to attack Patrick Ferguson, a British officer, at the battle of Kings Mountain to change the outcome of the war. Shelby led a group of men who had fought in the previous Dunmore’s wars against the Native Americans. Which earned them their famous name, “the yelling boys” (71). The Patriots fought hard and won a major battle…show more content… In chapter 3, Biggers uses pathos which is an “emotional” appeal that “appeals to an audience’s needs, values, and emotional sensibilities” (Using Rhetorical Strategies for Persuasion”). For example, Biggers uses pathos when he says, “a British colonel ignored a white flag of surrender by continental troops near Waxhaws, South Carolina, and butchered hundreds of disarmed Patriots” (69). The words “butchered” and “disarmed” are evidence of pathos because they are emotional words (69). Both words show how the British were killing unarmed soldiers. Biggers also uses pathos when he says, “he smugly instructed the loyalist to confiscate the plantations of any Patriots, treat the enemy without mercy, and hang any traitors to the British Crown” (69). The words used by Cornwallis are an example of intimidating, which is used to scare the colonist into staying loyal to the crown. Biggers also uses ethos which is the “ethical appeal” or “credibility and reliability of the writer” (“Using Rhetorical Strategies for