Mike Fink
Text:
Character Key:
Display Name:
Mike Fink
Sort Name:
Fink, Mike
Race:
White
Gender:
Male
Class:
Lower Class
Rank:
Peripheral
Vitality:
Dead
Occupation:
Transportation
Specific Job:
Keelboatman
First Mentioned:
Date of Birth:
Monday, January 1, 1770 to Sunday, December 31, 1780
Origin:
Pennsylvania
Biography:
Mike Fink was both a real person and, as the narrator puts it, "a legend" (83), a figure around whom grew up a rich set of tall tales about the American West in the early republic, when "the West" was still east of the Mississippi. He was known as 'the King of the Keelboaters' - the frontiersmen who used their muscles to propel flat-bottom freight boats on the Mississippi River and its tributaries in the years before steamboats arrived.
Ontological Status:
Historical/Real
Individual or Group:
Individual
Character changes class in this text:
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