CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION 
CHAPTER I. THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES 
CHAPTER II. THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION 
CHAPTER III. THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER 
CHAPTER IV. THE INDIAN WAR 
CHAPTER V. IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION 
CHAPTER VI. CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES 
CHAPTER VII. THE LAND COMPANIES 
CHAPTER VIII. THE LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE 
CHAPTER IX. DANIEL BOONE AND WILDERNESS EXPLORATION 
CHAPTER X. DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY 
CHAPTER XI. THE REGULATORS 
CHAPTER XII. WATAUGA--HAVEN OF LIBERTY 
CHAPTER XIII. OPENING THE GATEWAY--DUNMORE'S WAR 
CHAPTER XIV. RICHARD HENDERSON AND THE TRANSYLVANIA COMPANY 
CHAPTER XV. TRANSYLVANIA--A WILDERNESS COMMONWEALTH 
CHAPTER XVI. THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN 
CHAPTER XVII. THE COLONIZATION OF THE CUMBERLAND 
CHAPTER XVIII. KING'S MOUNTAIN 
CHAPTER XIX. THE STATE OF FRANKLIN 
CHAPTER XX. THE LURE OF SPAIN--THE HAVEN OF STATEHOOD 



INTRODUCTION

The romantic and thrilling story of the southward and westward migration 
of successive waves of transplanted European peoples throughout the entire 
course of the eighteenth century is the history of the growth and 
evolution of American democracy. Upon the American continent was wrought 
out, through almost superhuman daring, incredible hardship, and surpassing 
endurance, the formation of a new society. The European rudely confronted 
with the pitiless conditions of the wilderness soon discovered that his 
maintenance, indeed his existence, was conditioned upon his individual 
efficiency and his resourcefulness in adapting himself to his environment. 
The very history of the human race, from the age of primitive man to the 
modern era of enlightened civilization, is traversed in the Old Southwest 
throughout the course of half a century.

A series of dissolving views thrown upon the screen, picturing the 
successive episodes in the history of a single family as it wended its way 
southward along the eastern valleys, resolutely repulsed the sudden attack 
of the Indians, toiled painfully up the granite slopes of the 
Appalachians, and pitched down into the transmontane wilderness upon the 
western waters, would give to the spectator a vivid conception, in 
miniature, of the westward movement. But certain basic elements in the 
grand procession, revealed to the sociologist and the economist, would 
perhaps escape his scrutiny. Back of the individual, back of the family, 
even, lurk the creative and formative impulses of colonization, expansion, 
and government. In the recognition of these social and economic tendencies 
the individual merges into the group; the group into the community; the 
community into a new society. In this clear perspective of historic 
development the spectacular hero at first sight seems to diminish; but the 
mass, the movement, the social force which he epitomizes and interprets, 
gain in impressiveness and dignity.

As the irresistible tide of migratory peoples swept ever southward and 
westward, seeking room for expansion and economic independence, a series 
of frontiers was gradually thrust out toward the wilderness in successive 
waves of irregular indentation. The true leader in this westward advance, 
to whom less than his deserts has been accorded by the historian, is the 
drab and mercenary trader with the Indians. The story of his enterprise 
and of his adventures begins with the planting of European civilization 
upon American soil. In the mind of the aborigines he created the passion 
for the fruits, both good and evil, of the white man's civilization, and 
he was welcomed by the Indian because he also brought the means for 
repelling the further advance of that civilization. The trader was of 
incalculable service to the pioneer in first spying out the land and 
charting the trackless wilderness. The trail rudely marked by the buffalo 
became in time the Indian path and the trader's "trace"; and the pioneers 
upon the westward march, following the line of least resistance, cut out 
their, roads along these very routes. It is not too much to say that had 
it not been for the trader--brave, hardy, and adventurous however often 
crafty, unscrupulous, and immoral--the expansionist movement upon the 
American continent would have been greatly retarded.

So scattered and ramified were the enterprises and expeditions of the 
traders with the Indians that the frontier which they established was at 
best both shifting and unstable. Following far in the wake of these 
advance agents of the civilization which they so often disgraced, came the 
cattle-herder or rancher, who took advantage of the extensive pastures and 
ranges along the uplands and foot-hills to raise immense herds of cattle. 
Thus was formed what might be called a rancher's frontier, thrust out in 
advance of the ordinary farming settlements and serving as the first 
serious barrier against the Indian invasion. The westward movement of 
population is in this respect a direct advance from the coast. Years 
before the influx into the Old Southwest of the tides of settlement from 
the northeast, the more adventurous struck straight westward in the wake 
of the fur-trader, and here and there erected the cattle-ranges beyond the 
farming frontier of the piedmont region. The wild horses and cattle which 
roamed at will through the upland barrens and pea-vine pastures were 
herded in and driven for sale to the city markets of the East.

The farming frontier of the piedmont plateau constituted the real backbone 
of western settlement. The pioneering farmers, with the adventurous 
instincts of the hunter and the explorer, plunged deeper and ever deeper 
into the wilderness, lured on by the prospect of free and still richer 
lands in the dim interior. Settlements quickly sprang up in the 
neighborhood of military posts or rude forts established to serve as 
safeguards against hostile attack; and trade soon flourished between these 
settlements and the eastern centers, following the trails of the trader 
and the more beaten paths of emigration. The bolder settlers who ventured 
farthest to the westward were held in communication with the East through 
their dependence upon salt and other necessities of life; and the search 
for salt-springs in the virgin wilderness was an inevitable consequence of 
the desire of the pioneer to shake off his dependence upon the coast.

The prime determinative principle of the progressive American civilization 
of the eighteenth century was the passion for the acquisition of land. The 
struggle for economic independence developed the germ of American liberty 
and became the differentiating principle of American character. Here was a 
vast unappropriated region in the interior of the continent to be had for 
the seeking, which served as lure and inspiration to the man daring enough 
to risk his all in its acquisition. It was in accordance with human nature 
and the principles of political economy that this unknown extent of 
uninhabited transmontane land, widely renowned for beauty, richness, and 
fertility, should excite grandiose dreams in the minds of English and 
Colonials alike. England was said to be "New Land mad and everybody there 
has his eye fixed on this country." Groups of wealthy or well-to-do 
individuals organized themselves into land companies for the colonization 
and exploitation of the West. The pioneer promoter was a powerful creative 
force in westward expansion; and the activities of the early land 
companies were decisive factors in the colonization of the wilderness. 
Whether acting under the authority of a crown grant or proceeding on their 
own authority, the land companies tended to give stability and permanence 
to settlements otherwise hazardous and insecure.

The second determinative impulse of the pioneer civilization was 
wanderlust--the passionately inquisitive instinct of the hunter, the 
traveler, and the explorer. This restless class of nomadic wanderers was 
responsible in part for the royal proclamation of 1763, a secondary object 
of which, according to Edmund Burke, was the limitation of the colonies on 
the West, as "the charters of many of our old colonies give them, with few 
exceptions, no bounds to the westward but the South Sea." The Long 
Hunters, taking their lives in their hands, fared boldly forth to a fabled 
hunter's paradise in the far-away wilderness, because they were driven by 
the irresistible desire of a Ponce de Leon or a De Soto to find out the 
truth about the unknown lands beyond.

But the hunter was not only thrilled with the passion of the chase and of 
discovery; he was intent also upon collecting the furs and skins of wild 
animals for lucrative barter and sale in the centers of trade. He was 
quick to make "tomahawk claims" and to assert "corn rights" as he spied 
out the rich virgin land for future location and cultivation. Free land 
and no taxes appealed to the backwoodsman, tired of paying quit-rents to 
the agents of wealthy lords across the sea. Thus the settler speedily 
followed in the hunter's wake. In his wake also went many rude and lawless 
characters of the border, horse thieves and criminals of different sorts, 
who sought to hide their delinquencies in the merciful liberality of the 
wilderness. For the most part, however, it was the salutary instinct of 
the homebuilder--the man with the ax, who made a little clearing in the 
forest and built there a rude cabin that he bravely defended at all risks 
against continued assaults--which, in defiance of every restraint, 
irresistibly thrust westward the thin and jagged line of the frontier. The 
ax and the surveyor's chain, along with the rifle and the hunting-knife, 
constituted the armorial bearings of the pioneer. With individual as with 
corporation, with explorer as with landlord, land-hunger was the master 
impulse of the era.

The various desires which stimulated and promoted westward expansion were, 
to be sure, often found in complete conjunction. The trader sought to 
exploit the Indian for his own advantage, selling him whisky, trinkets, 
and firearms in return for rich furs and costly peltries; yet he was often 
a hunter himself and collected great stores of peltries as the result of 
his solitary and protracted hunting-expeditions. The rancher and the 
herder sought to exploit the natural vegetation of marsh and upland, the 
cane-brakes and pea-vines; yet the constantly recurring need for fresh 
pasturage made him a pioneer also, drove him ever nearer to the mountains, 
and furnished the economic motive for his westward advance. The small 
farmer needed the virgin soil of the new region, the alluvial river-
bottoms, and the open prairies, for the cultivation of his crops and the 
grazing of his cattle; yet in the intervals between the tasks of farm life 
he scoured the wilderness in search of game "and spied out new lands for 
future settlement".

This restless and nomadic race, says the keenly observant Francis Baily, 
"delight much to live on the frontiers, where they can enjoy undisturbed, 
and free from the control of any laws, the blessings which nature has 
bestowed upon them." Independence of spirit, impatience of restraint, the 
inquisitive nature, and the nomadic temperament--these are the strains in 
the American character of the eighteenth century which ultimately blended 
to create a typical democracy. The rolling of wave after wave of 
settlement westward across the American continent, with a reversion to 
primitive conditions along the line of the farthest frontier, and a marked 
rise in the scale of civilization at each successive stage of settlement, 
from the western limit to the eastern coast, exemplifies from one aspect 
the history of the American people during two centuries. This era, 
constituting the first stage in our national existence, and productive of 
a buoyant national character shaped in democracy upon a free soil, closed 
only yesterday with the exhaustion of cultivable free land, the 
disappearance of the last frontier, and the recent death of "Buffalo 
Bill". The splendid inauguration of the period, in the region of the 
Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, during the second half of 
the eighteenth century, is the theme of this story of the pioneers of the 
Old Southwest.