The Appalachian Frontier: America’s First Surge WestwardJohn A. Caruso’s The Appalachian Frontier is a stirring drama of the beginnings of American westward expansion. It traces the advance of the frontier in the area between the Ohio and Tennessee rivers and the development of the American character—those attitudes toward personal liberty and dignity that have come to epitomize our national ideal. The Appalachian Frontier is no mere catalog of facts; it is a recreation of life. Not until about 1650, more than a generation after the first English settlements were established on the eastern coast, did organized bands of white explorers, hunters and fur trappers venture very far into the trackless back country claimed by the British Crown. Beginning with those earliest scouting parties The Appalachian Frontier presses with the pioneers past the Fall Line and the pine barrens into the Piedmont of Virginia, on through gaps in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Great Valley of the Appalachians, through the Great Valley to the jagged peaks of the Allegheny Front and, finally, over those peaks into the rich country of Kentucky and Tennessee. As the frontiersman advances he discovers that the rules prevailing in the European-dominated eastern settlements do not apply in his new situation. Thus we see him formulate the rudiments of a law of his own. As his life grows more complex, he frames compacts and, finally; constitutions peculiarly adapted to the exigencies of frontier living. We are present at the inception of the fluid democracy that later engulfed the more stable coastal colonies and ultimately came to characterize the government of the United States. The story closes, quite properly, with the admission of Tennessee into the Union in 1796. In John A. Caruso’s bright, informal, sometimes almost racy telling of the tale, historical personages emerge as real people whose triumphs and heartaches we share, with whose deficiencies and inadequacies we sympathize, and in whose hours of nobility we rejoice. |
Contents
4THE LONG HUNTERS IN KENTUCKY 46 | |
5THE REGULATORS OF NORTH CAROLINA 60 | |
9TRANSYLVANIA 117 | |
10SIEGE OF BOONESBORO 134 | |
11PATTERN OF LIFE 154 | |
12KINGS MOUNTAIN 175 | |
13SETTLEMENTS ON THE CUMBERLAND 188 | |
14FRANKLIN THE LOST STATE 209 | |
STRUGGLE FOR STATEHOOD 232 | |
16MAKING OF TENNESSEE 253 | |
6THE WATAUGANS 75 | |
7LORD DUNMORES WAR 88 | |
8THE WILDERNESS TRAIL 106 | |
NOTES 277 | |
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 278 | |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 286 | |
Other editions - View all
The Appalachian Frontier: America's First Surge Westward (Classic Reprint) John Anthony Caruso No preview available - 2018 |
The Appalachian Frontier: America's First Surge Westward John Anthony Caruso No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
acres American assembly Blackfish Bloody Fellow Blount Boone Boone’s Boonesboro British brother cabin camp Canoe Captain Cherokee Chickasaw chief Clark Colonel colony command Congress convention corn court Creek Cumberland Daniel delegates Donelson Dragging Canoe Draper MSS Dunmore Dunmore’s War expedition Ferguson fire forest Franklin French friends frontier frontiersmen Gardoqui George George Rogers Clark governor ground Harrodsburg Henderson Holston horses hundred hunters hunting Ibid James John John Sevier Kentucky killed King’s Mountain land letter Little Carpenter March miles militia Miró Mississippi Muscle Shoals North Carolina Oconostota officers Ohio Old Southwest peace Pennsylvania pioneers prisoners proprietors Ramsey region Regulators replied requested returned Richard Henderson rifle River Robertson Scotch-Irish sent settled settlements settlers Sevier Shawnee Shelby soon Spain surrender Sycamore Shoals Tennessee territory Tipton town trade Transylvania treaty Treaty of Holston Tryon Valley village Virginia Virginia assembly warriors Washington Watauga Watts western wilderness Wilkinson William wounded