Sentence:  By 1800 as many as ten thousand "<WSD>Kaintucks</WSD>" — the local term for boatmen from anywhere north of Natchez — annually journeyed on the trace, the most direct overland route home. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A worker, especially one having a crude or rowdy manner, on a boat that transported commercial goods on the Mississippi River.