Carolina, hired Boone to help establish a colony to be called Transylvania. Boone traveled to several Cherokee towns and invited them to a meeting, held at Sycamore Shoals in March 1775, where Henderson purchased the Cherokee claim to Kentucky. Boone then blazed "Boone's Trace," later known as the Wilderness Road, through the Cumberland Gap and into central Kentucky. Sam, an enslaved black “body servant,” and other enslaved laborers were among this group of settlers. When this group camped near the present day Richmond, KY, Indians attacked, killing Sam and his owner. After driving off the attackers, the party buried the two men side by side. He founded Boonesborough along the Kentucky River; other settlements, notably Harrodsburg, were also established at this time. Despite occasional Indian attacks, Boone brought his family and other settlers to Boonesborough on September 8, 1775. American Revolution American Indians who were unhappy about the loss of Kentucky in treaties, saw the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) as a chance to drive out the colonists. Isolated settlers and hunters became the frequent target of attacks, convincing many to abandon Kentucky. By late spring of 1776, Boone and his family were among the fewer than 200 colonists who remained in Kentucky, primarily at the fortified settlements of Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, and Logan's Station. On July 14, 1776, Boone's daughter Jemima and two other girls were captured outside Boonesborough by an Indian war party, who carried the girls north toward the Shawnee towns in the Ohio country. Boone and a group of men from Boonesborough followed in pursuit, finally catching up with them two days later. Boone and his men ambushed the Indians, rescuing the girls and driving off their captors. The incident became the most celebrated event of Boone's life. James Fenimore Cooper created a version of this episode in his classic novel The Last of the Mohicans (1826). In 1777, Henry Hamilton, British Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, began to recruit American Indian war parties to raid the Kentucky settlements. That same year in March, the newly formed militia of Kentucky County, VA mustered in Boonesborough, whose population included ten to 15 enslaved people. On April 24, 1778, the British-allied Shawnee led by Chief Blackfish mounted the siege of Boonesborough. Armed enslaved men fought alongside their owners at the fort's walls. After going beyond the fort walls to engage the attackers, London, one of the enslaved, was killed. Boone was