The Conquest of the Old Southwest; the romantic story of the early pioneers into Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, 1740-1790

The people of this region have come to realize truly upon what part of the world and upon which nation their future happiness and security depend, and they immediately infer tha...

I happened to fall in company, and have a great deal of conversation with one of the most singular and extraordinary persons and excentric geniuses in America, and perhaps in th...

March 31, 1780. Set out this day, and after running some distance, met with Col. Richard Henderson, who was running the line between Virginia and North Carolina. At this meeting...

Designs of a more dangerous nature and deeper die seem to glare in the western revolt.... I have thought proper to issue this manifesto, hereby warning all persons concerned in...

The Regulators despaired of seeing better times and therefore quitted the Province. It is said 1,500 departed since the Battle of Alamance and to my knowledge a great many more...

Virginia, we conceive, can claim this Country [Kentucky] with the greatest justice and propriety, its within the Limits of their Charter. They Fought and bled for it. And had it...

Governor Lyttelton's treaty of "peace," negotiated with the Cherokees at the close of 1759, was worse than a crime: it was a crass and hideous blunder. His domineering attitude...

westward expansion. During the ensuing years it began to dawn upon the minds of men of the stamp of William Byrd and Joshua Gee that there was imperative need for the establishm...

Far from the bustle of the world, they live in the most delightful climate, and richest soil imaginable; they are everywhere surrounded with beautiful prospects and sylvan scene...

To this short war may be properly attributed all the kind feelings and fidelity to treaty stipulations manifested by the Cherokees ever afterwards. General Rutherford instilled...

With the utmost satisfaction I can acquaint you with the sudden and favorable turn of our public affairs. A few days ago destruction hung over our heads. Cornwallis with at leas...

He felt very much as Columbus did, gazing from his caravel on San Salvador; as Cortes, looking down from the crest of Ahualco, on the Valley of Mexico; or Vasco Nuñez, standing...

It is not a persons labour, nor yet his effects that will do, but if he has but one horse to plow with, one bed to lie on, or one cow to give a little milk for his children, the...

Inhabitants flock in here daily, mostly from Pensilvania and other parts of America, who are over-stocked with people and some directly from Europe, they commonly seat themselve...

All met in companies with their wives and children, and set about building little fortifications, to defend themselves from such barbarian and inhuman enemies, whom they conclud...

You are about a work of the utmost importance to the well-being of this country in general, in which the interest and security of each and every individual are inseparably conne...

We give thanks and praise for the safety and peace vouchsafed us by our Heavenly Father in these times of war. Many of our neighbors, driven hither and yon like deer before wild...

The long Hunters principally resided in the upper countries of Virginia & North Carolina on New River & Holston River, and when they intended to make a long Hunt (as they calld...

Here, where the hand of violence shed the blood of the innocent; where the horrid yells of the savages, and the groans of the distressed, sounded in our ears, we now hear the pr...

In the year 1746 I was up in the country that is now Anson, Orange and Rowan Counties, there was not then above one hundred fighting men there is now at least three thousand for...

• Page 315: In Sevier's quote, "we shall pursue no furtheir measures as to a new State," the spelling of furtheir matches that of Henderson's book. Because this is a quote, no c...

It was thought good policy to settle those lands as fast as possible, and that the granting them to men of the first consequence who were likeliest and best able to procure larg...

• Page 270: Far-flung is hyphenated for spacing and split between two lines in the clause "along the farflung frontier of Kentucky." There are no other occurrences of the word....

• Page 181: Court-room is hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing in the clause "the Regulators took possession of the court-room." On page 180, court-room is spelled...

• Page 293: Over-mountain men is hyphenated for spacing and split between two lines in the clause: "the over-mountain men gathered on September 25th." This word was used other t...

• Page 39: Powder-horn is hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing purposes, giving us two choices on how to transcribe the word. On Page 213, powder-horns with the hy...

• Page 68: The author used the original spelling of the fort on page 68 in the clause "To this fort, named Fort Loudoun in honor of Lord Loudoun," but changed the spelling to mo...

• Page 127: Half-breed is hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing purposes, giving us two choices on how to transcribe the word. On Page 141, half-breed with the hyph...

• Page 266: Rendez-voused was hyphenated for spacing and split between two lines in the clause "Colonel William Christian rendez-voused." Rendezvous is written without the hyphe...

• Page 133: Life-time is hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing purposes, giving us two choices on how to transcribe the word. There was no other occurrence of life-...

• Page 98: Céloron de Bienville is spelled with a grave accent despite the correct spelling (according to Wikipedia) of Céloron on Page 46. The spelling in the book was retained.