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Pharos History Through Fiction · Course 1

Through the
Fading Darkness

Lord Dunmore’s War, 1774, in a novel and in the record. Read or listen to the novel, then test it against letters, ledgers, laws, newspapers and memoirs.

For grades 7–12 · the Virginia frontier and the Ohio country, 1774 · 18 weeks

Get the course · $249Pharos Terminal subscribers · $179Start with Lessons 1–2
Pharos History Through Fiction
The Through the Fading Darkness course cover.
The Pharos History Through Fiction lantern emblem.

The course cover and the Pharos History Through Fiction lantern. The novel is sold separately.

One novel.
The whole record.

  • 18 weeksOne lesson a week, about 3–4 hours.
  • 18 lessonsFour sessions in each, 45 to 60 minutes.
  • 7 unitsFrom Yellow Creek in the spring to the peace at Camp Charlotte.
  • History and ELAWith Science, Math and Civics.
  • A capstoneA final assessment, about two weeks. It can overlap Weeks 17 and 18 or follow them.

Two ways to work

Online or on paper.
Or both.

Every purchase includes all 18 lessons as PDFs. Pharos Terminal subscribers can also open the course online.

The Through the Fading Darkness course in Pharos Terminal.

Online · For Pharos Terminal subscribers

In Pharos Terminal

The course inside Pharos Terminal, alongside the rest of your student’s week.

  • Lessons 1–2 included with an active Pharos Terminal subscription.
  • Buy the course, and all 18 lessons open online while your subscription is active.
  • Students see the student part only. The part for the parent or teacher stays with you.
  • The 12 Nexus Points for this course come in the regular Pharos Terminal feed.
Page 1 of Lesson 1 of the Through the Fading Darkness course PDF.

PDF · Included with every purchase

The lesson PDFs

All 18 lessons, the capstone and the course guide, yours to keep. No subscription needed.

  • Print them, or read them on any device.
  • Four sessions in each lesson, 45 to 60 minutes each.
  • A “For the parent or teacher” section in every lesson: answer keys, discussion guidance and a rubric.
  • A separate Grades 7–8 prompt for every writing task.
  • The PDFs stay yours if a subscription ends.

Left: the course in Pharos Terminal. Right: Lesson 1, page 1, as it appears in the PDF.

The course

Seven units. Eighteen weeks.

Each week pairs chapters of the novel with primary sources.

  1. Weeks 1–3Lessons 1–3Spring 1774: Yellow Creek and Logan. The Ohio Country in 1774 · Baker’s Landing and the Yellow Creek massacre · Logan: Shawnee in the novel, Mingo in the record
  2. Weeks 4–5Lessons 4–5The raid and the ledger. Raid and pursuit: forts, Rangers and captives · The militia ledger: pay, days and math
  3. Weeks 6, 7 and 8Lessons 6, 7 and 8Bound lives: servitude and slavery. Three accounts of Kelly’s Creek · Bound by law: servants and the enslaved · Sylvie and Harriet Jacobs
  4. Weeks 9–10Lessons 9–10Salt and the Shawnee towns. Mary Draper Ingles and the science of salt · Inside the Shawnee towns
  5. Weeks 11–12Lessons 11–12The army marches. Raising an army, and which county was Dickinson’s? · Women with the army: Jemima Warner and the camp followers
  6. Weeks 13–15Lessons 13–15Governor, battle and peace. How the governor saw the frontier · The Battle of Point Pleasant · Cornstalk: peace, and murder at Fort Randolph
  7. Weeks 16–18Lessons 16–18Legend, memory and truth. Blue Jacket: legend, DNA and a date · Logan’s Lament: one speech, many versions · Story truth: Camp Charlotte, archaeology and the novel
The week-by-week schedule in the Through the Fading Darkness course guide.

Every lesson

Eighteen lessons.

Each lesson is one PDF with four sessions: read, then background; primary-source work; discussion and writing; a short assessment.

Lesson 1 · includedThe Ohio Country in 1774Whose land was it? Treaties, claims and the people who never signed them
Lesson 2 · includedBaker’s Landing and the Yellow Creek massacreWhat happened on April 30, 1774, and who was blamed
Lesson 3Logan: Shawnee in the novel, Mingo in the recordHow a novel reshapes a real man, and how we can check it
Lesson 4Raid and pursuit: forts, Rangers and captivesHow the novel’s raid on Dickinson’s Meadow echoes real frontier captivities
Lesson 5The militia ledger: pay, days and mathReading a real 1775 pay ledger from the Library of Virginia
Lesson 6Three accounts of Kelly’s CreekKilled, captured or the sole survivor? An enslaved woman in three versions
Lesson 7Bound by law: servants and the enslavedWhat Virginia law said about Lydia and Sylvie, and what runaway ads reveal
Lesson 8Sylvie and Harriet JacobsHow a nineteenth-century autobiography shaped a character in 1774
Lesson 9Mary Draper Ingles and the science of saltBrine, fire and a captive’s skill on the Kanawha
Lesson 10Inside the Shawnee townsA missionary’s 1773 journal, the novel’s villages and the Shawnee nations today
Lesson 11Raising an army, and which county was Dickinson’s?Camp Union, the Southern Division and a records puzzle
Lesson 12Women with the army: Jemima Warner and the camp followersThe true story behind Lydia’s walk back to camp
Lesson 13How the governor saw the frontierDunmore’s report of 1774 and his Proclamation of 1775
Lesson 14The Battle of Point PleasantOctober 10, 1774, in a soldier’s letter and in the novel
Lesson 15Cornstalk: peace, and murder at Fort RandolphThe Shawnee leader’s words at Camp Charlotte and his death in 1777
Lesson 16Blue Jacket: legend, DNA and a dateTesting three claims about the Shawnee war leader
Lesson 17Logan’s Lament: one speech, many versionsHow a message from the Ohio became one of America’s most famous speeches
Lesson 18Story truth: Camp Charlotte, archaeology and the novelHow historians, archaeologists and novelists each look for the truth

Real or invented?

Test the story
against the record.

Every lesson asks the same question in a new way: what in the story is real, what is invented, and how do we know?

Read or listenRead the assigned chapters, or listen to the audiobook, before Session 1.
Into the sourcesLetters, ledgers, laws, newspapers, memoirs and the work of archaeologists and scientists.
Sort fact from fictionWeigh conflicting accounts. Where the novel invents a person or a group, the lessons label it fiction.
Write it upA writing task every week, with a separate Grades 7–8 prompt, and a short assessment.

Included with an active Pharos Terminal subscription

Start with Lessons 1–2.

An active Pharos Terminal subscription includes the first two lessons. Buy the full course for Lessons 3–18, the capstone and the course guide.

Lesson 1The Ohio Country in 1774. Whose land was it? Treaties, claims and the people who never signed them.
Lesson 2Baker’s Landing and the Yellow Creek massacre. What happened on April 30, 1774, and who was blamed.
Lessons 3–18The rest of the course, the capstone and the course guide are part of the full course.
See Pharos TerminalGet the course · $249Pharos Terminal subscribers · $179
The Through the Fading Darkness course cover.

The novel

Through the Fading Darkness

The first book of the Fading Darkness series follows fictional and real people through 1774 in western Virginia and the Ohio country, from the Yellow Creek massacre in the spring to the Battle of Point Pleasant on Oct. 10 and the peace at Camp Charlotte.

The course uses the novel as a doorway, not as the record. Its Historical Notes explain many of its choices; the course tests those notes too.

Sold separately: on Amazon in print and Kindle, and on Audible.

About the novel
Zac Northup.

Your guide

Zac Northup

Zac has written and published under his own name since 1996. From 2016 to 2021, he ran an educational nonprofit that taught rural high school students to launch their own small businesses. He holds an M.A. in History from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Pricing

The whole course.
One payment.

Through the Fading Darkness$249One payment. One family license.
No subscription needed.

Included

  • All 18 lessons as PDFs
  • The capstone final assessment
  • The course guide with the 18-week schedule
  • A “For the parent or teacher” section in every lesson

Not included

  • The novel, Through the Fading Darkness (sold separately)
  • The 12 Nexus Points (included with an active Pharos Terminal subscription)

Pharos Terminal subscribers: $179 — includes all 18 lessons online while your subscription is active, plus the PDFs.

Get the course · $249Pharos Terminal subscribers · $179

Pharos Terminal is $399 a year for one student ($299 for each additional student) and includes Lessons 1 and 2. Refund policy

Questions? Answers.

Who is it for?

Students in grades 7–12. Every writing task has a separate Grades 7–8 prompt that asks for shorter, more structured work.

Do we need a Pharos Terminal subscription?

No. On its own, the full course is $249 for every lesson, the capstone and the course guide as PDFs. Active Pharos Terminal subscribers pay $179 and can also open the lessons online. Lessons 1–2 are included with an active subscription.

Do we need the novel?

Yes. Each lesson assigns chapters. The novel is sold separately: on Amazon in print and Kindle, and on Audible, narrated by Scott Fleming.

How long does it take?

Eighteen weeks, one lesson a week. Four sessions a week, 45 to 60 minutes each, is the default pace, or about 3–4 hours a week. The capstone takes about two weeks; it can overlap Weeks 17 and 18 or follow them.

Is any of it hard to read?

The novel and the sources describe frontier warfare, massacre, captivity, slavery and the deaths of children. Lessons with especially hard material open with a content note for the parent or teacher. Preview those chapters before assigning them to younger students.

What if our subscription ends?

The course purchase stays yours. You keep every PDF.

How does it connect to state standards?

Each lesson’s part for the parent or teacher lists the West Virginia standards it addresses, for planning and records. Citation is not an endorsement by the West Virginia Board of Education or the WV Department of Education.

Real or invented?

Through the Fading Darkness · $249 · For grades 7–12 · Available now

Get the course · $249Pharos Terminal subscribers · $179

Standards are cited for planning and record-keeping; citation is not an endorsement by the West Virginia Board of Education or the WV Department of Education. Amazon, Kindle and Audible are trademarks of their owners.