American Frontier
As it relates to Ohio, the American Frontier Era began with the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Some English colonists, such as missionaries for the Moravian Church, fur trappers, and struggling eastern farmers, had moved west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Ohio Country and other areas before 1776. But the English government's Proclamation of 1763 had made settlement in these locations illegal. Having declared themselves citizens of a country independent from England, Americans moved into the Ohio Country at will. Fearing the influx of white settlers, most Native Americans allied themselves with the English government during the American Revolution. The land west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River formally became American territory with the Treaty of Paris (1783). Bitter struggles over this land occurred between American settlers and the original native inhabitants as the two sides struggled for control over the region.
Jonathan Alder’s cabin, London, Ohio, ca. 1935. Alder was the first white settler of Madison County. He constructed the cabin in 1806.
References and Suggested Reading
- Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766. New York: Alfred A. Knopf: Random House, 2000. - Available from Amazon.com
- Barr, Daniel P., ed. The Boundaries Between Us: Natives and Newcomers Along the Frontiers of the Old Northwest Territory, 1750-1850. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2006. - Available from Amazon.com
- Bond, Beverley W., Jr. The Foundations of Ohio. Columbus, OH: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941.
- Brecher, Frank W. Securing American Independence: John Jay and the French Alliance. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. - Available from Amazon.com
- Dixon, David. Never Come to Peace Again: Pontiac's Uprising and the Fate of the British Empire in North America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005. - Available from Amazon.com
- Dowd, Gregory Evans. War Under Heaven: Pontiac, the Indian Nations & the British Empire. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. - Available from Amazon.com
- Flavell, Julie, and Stephen Conway, eds. Britain and America go to War: The Impact of War and Warfare in Anglo-America, 1754-1815. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- Fowler, William M., Jr. Empires at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754-1763. New York: Walker & Company, 2005. - Available from Amazon.com
- Harrington, Jean Carl. New Light on Washington's Fort Necessity: A Report on the Archeological Explorations at Fort Necessity. Richmond, VA: Eastern National Park and Monument Association, 1957.
- Haven, Kendall F. Voices of the American Revolution: Stories of Men, Women, and Children who Forged Our Nation. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2000. - Available from Amazon.com
- Hoffman, Ronald, and Peter J. Albert, eds. Peace and the Peacemakers: the Treaty of 1783. Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 1986. - Available from Amazon.com
- Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996. - Available from Amazon.com
- Knepper, George. Ohio and Its People. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003. - Available from Amazon.com
- Kopperman, Paul E. Braddock at the Monongahela. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977. - Available from Amazon.com
- Nester, William R. The Frontier War for American Independence. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- Nester, William R. The Great Frontier War: Britain, France, and the Imperial Struggle for North America, 1607-1755. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000. - Available from Amazon.com
- O'Donnell, James H., III. Ohio's First Peoples. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- O'Meara, Walter. Guns at the Forks. Englewoods Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965. - Available from Amazon.com
- Ricky, Donald B., ed. Encyclopedia of Ohio Indians. St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, Inc., 1998. - Available from Amazon.com
- Ward, Matthew C. Breaking the Backcountry: The Seven Years' War in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1754-1765. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003. - Available from Amazon.com
Time Periods
Citation
"American Frontier", Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=651
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