Category: History - American

The Fair Play Settlers of the West Branch Valley, 1769-1784 A Study of Frontier Ethnography

The Colonial period of American history has been of primary concern to the historian because of its fundamental importance in the development of American civilization. What the American pioneers encountered, particularly in the interior settlements, was, basically, a frontier...

Chapters

8. CHAPTER EIGHT

In the first chapter of his recent study, _The Making of an American Community_, Merle Curti suggests that "less is to be gained by further analysis of Turner's brilliant and fa...

5. CHAPTER FIVE

The society of the Fair Play territory, between the year 1769 and 1784, was indeed simple. There were no towns or population clusters, either in the territory or within a range...

3. CHAPTER THREE

The political system of these predominantly Scotch-Irish squatters in the Susquehanna Valley, along the West Branch, offers a vivid demonstration of the impact of the frontier o...

1. CHAPTER ONE

The Colonial period of American history has been of primary concern to the historian because of its fundamental importance in the development of American civilization. What the...

2. CHAPTER TWO

James Logan, president of the Proprietary Council of Pennsylvania, 1736-1738, once declared that "if the Scotch-Irish continue to come they will make themselves masters of the P...

6. CHAPTER SIX

Any analysis of democracy in the Fair Play territory must consider the question of leadership and the particular problems of that frontier. The number of leaders and their roles...

4. CHAPTER FOUR

The economy of the West Branch Valley was basically agrarian--a farmers' frontier. The "new order of Americanism"[1] which arose on this frontier was in part due to the cultural...

7. CHAPTER SEVEN

One of the most often used and least understood words in the American lexicon is the term "democracy." In the colonial period, it was seldom used, except in denunciation. Howeve...