Good morning, everybody. Weve been talking for the last couple of weeks in this class about the effects of the American Revolution and framing that discussion about how revolutionary was the American Revolution . What kind of changes did it initiate in american society, american law, American Government . Why should we think of the American Revolution as a revolution rather than simply a war for independence . So we talked about, weve talked about this in various frame works. Weve talked about whether the revolution altered the social structure of the states that were involved in the revolution, and on the last time we met we talked about the impact of the revolution on africanamericans and on the institution of slavery. We saw that, in that case, the legacy was quite mixed, right . The revolution set the institution of slavery on the path to destruction in the northern states, but was instrumental and kind of deepening and strengthening the institution in the southern states. Today i want to talk about two topics that are closely interrelated, and that are really two sides of the same coin. I want to talk today about how the revolution affected native americans and how the revolution created a new system for thinking about making western lands widely available to ordinary people. Those are two sides of the same coin. On the one hand, the revolution initiated a new kind of commitment to pretty rapid westward territorial expansion in a widely democratic system of land holding. Land ownership, which was a really powerful engine of Economic Opportunity and democracy for a lot of ordinary white men and women and their families. But it also implied a pretty explicated pretty exploitative approach to native americans. So to say they are two sides of the same coin, and to begin thinking about this, just in an abstract sense, there were people involved in the American Revolution and foremost among them, Thomas Jefferson, who thought a great deal about this problem. Who believed that one of the most revolutionary aspects of the revolution ought to be making land more widely available to ordinary people on relatively easy terms. And this constituted a fundamental revolution in old european ways of thinking about the availability of land. Because in the old british system, in the old english system, land was a byproduct of aristocratic privilege and land holding was something that flowed from the top of society downward. In england, the land was owned by a relatively small number of people who owned a lot of it and they made it available on their own terms through rental agreements, you know, if you think about the feudal system, this is a system where tenants farm the lands of great lords and its a system that really, where Land Ownership and the power associated with it all resides at the top of society, and that principle was woven into the fabric of colonization, because if you think about how lands became available until colonies, the biggest colonies began with proprietary ownership. If you think about a colony like pennsylvania the first principle of pennsylvania is the king gives all the land to william penn and tells him he can do whatever he wants with it. This is an offshoot of that same aristocratic model where land starts at the top and is distributed downward according to whatever principles the powerful people who control it want to employ. We talked last week about the fact that far from seeing that stuff die away, we talked about the idea of a feudal revival. There were a lot of absentee landowners that had control of a lot of land and they were beginning to assert their privileges more strongly. They were collecting rents in a way they couldnt in an earlier period, so this idea of kind of land being tied to privilege, the privilege of a small number of powerful men, just foundational. Not only in english society, but to the way colonies were organized, and for jefferson, this was one of the most important things that needed to be overturned. We talked about his attack on trying to break up the greatest estates of the most powerful family. This is kind of a parallel idea. One of jeffersons cornerstone principles is the idea that the best social foundation for a republican government was to have a large number of yeoman farmers that owned relatively small amounts of land in fee simple. Meaning they did not pay rent to great landlords. They held the land on their own terms. So this idea of a society, a republic of yeoman farmers was one of the foundational principles that many people, especially including jefferson, wanted to work pretty hard to implement after the American Revolution. The problem is, of course, making abundant amounts of land widely available on cheap terms means you have to control the land in the first place, and this was not that simple. Because, of course, the land that the United States aspired to control and redistribute were lands that were occupied by native american populations, with their own claims, with their own sense of legitimacy, and in the process of trying to enact this theoretical revolution and the availability of land, what we see is the United States took a very exploitation approach to its relationship with native peoples throughout eastern north america. Thats a process that began in the revolution itself, and in order to kind of focus our discussion of this issue, i want to focus on the ohio country and ohio indians. There were indian populations up and down the eastern seaboard in the appalachian west and there were a lot of different stories associated with these groups, but for our purposes, just to focus on one of these groups i want to focus on the ohio country, which weve already talked about, because the ohio valley was the focus of lord dunmores war in 1774. Weve already talked about european aspirations to control the ohio country and dunmores effort basically to claim kentucky, whats now kentucky, from the shawnees through his victory in dunmores war. The ohio country population is kind of an interesting and complicated population because in the early 18th century, the ohio valley was largely depopulated for complicated historical reasons. In decades before the American Revolution, the ohio country was being repopulated by a pretty large and Diverse Group of indians that were coming both from the east, from pennsylvania and new jersey and new york, and also coming from the north and the west. So from the east, groups that were basically being displaced by the growth of pennsylvania, new jersey, and new york, were three populations in particular, the delawares and shawnee were migrating west out of pennsylvania and new jersey, and the western iroquois. This is the name they were given in the ohio country. These groups were forming in many cases shared communities. The most important communities in the ohio valley were often multi ethnic communities, and they were moving into the ohio valley both to move away from the immediate pressures of the growth of colonial settlement and also because the ohio valley was a really good place to hunt and trade. Pennsylvania traders started traveling in the ohio valley. As these groups moved into the ohio valley, pennsylvania traders followed them and they had a pretty robust set of Economic Opportunities in the 1740s and 1750s and 1760s, so you have these groups moving in from the east. At the same time, again, in response to the Economic Opportunity created by traders from pennsylvania, a pretty wide array of groups from the north and west that were moving out of the french sphere and into british sphere, including others, a relatively diverse population of native groups. And so the main thing i want you to understand, when we talk about the ohio indians, were talking about a diverse array of peoples that had not functioned together. They were not a coherent political unit. They had not operated together for a very long time at the time of the revolution, and the revolution forced them to make new kinds of collective choices in response to the pressures of that war. They had relied on a pattern of trade with pennsylvania, an alliance with both pennsylvania and really with each other for a number of years without really having further coalesced as any kind of political unit. And then this was the group, of course, that was directly attacked by virginia militia in dunmores war in 1774, particularly the shawnees, who dunmore thought was the most hostile of these groups, and the shawnees were engaged, and that was one battle at Point Pleasant in 1774. You remember that dunmores war established the principle, at least in the minds of virginians, that kentucky was now open to settlement. So one of the oddities of the American Revolution is that, in the spring and summer of 1775, this is at the same time that the shot heard around the world was fired at lexington, at concord, rather, battle of lexington and concord, battle of bunker hill. At the same time, all of that stuff was going on in new england, in central kentucky parties of virginians were moving into this newly claimed land in the summer of 1775, and without permission from the crown, without any legitimate authority from above, but having participated in dunmores war in 1774, dozens, hundreds of people began to occupy central kentucky in the spring and summer of 1775. This is a map that just, i just want to take a minute to look at, so im sure that you have a vision of what were talking about. Im talking about the ohio country, and this is actually a map that depicts battles during and after the American Revolution, but when we talk about the ohio country, im basically talking about this area mostly north of the ohio river. Heres where the three rivers come together at fort pitt to define the head waters of the ohio. This is the ohio country, and then kentucky the territory that people were beginning to occupy in 1775 and 1776 is down here. You can see some of these early stations. Boone spero is one of the early kentucky stations. This became the leading edge of Anglo American settlement even before there was an American Revolutionary war. This is something, its a process thats moving forward independent of the revolution, yet it intersects and it intersects with the revolution and the revolution fundamentally changes the fortunes of these people who will moving west, because, under the auspices of the crown, they were criminals. They were beyond the proclamation line of 1763. What they were doing was illegal. But under, you know, in the context of the American Revolution, as the Second Continental Congress was sitting, as revolutionary legislatures were taking over in the states, it was possible for them to make new claims to legitimacy, and thats exactly what these kentucky settlers did. In the course of the American Revolution, these kentucky settlers made common cause with the United States. And with the revolutionary governments that managed them. And they made very specific pleas about the legitimacy of their occupation and settlement. They specifically talked about the fact that the king had limited, had restricted access to these western lands, but that they had fought and bled for these lands at the battle of Point Pleasant. They had a legitimate and meaning plan to these lands and moreover, just as the United States seemed to be interested in liberty, they were also interested in liberty and they thought what the United States was talking about was pretty great and they wanted to be part of it. And they said the United States would be foolish to miss the opportunity to incorporate such skilled rifleman into their ranks. They petitioned their congress and said, if you support us out here, well fight for you and keep the native peoples off of your backs. So they made the case that in addition to the fact that they adhered to the same principles of liberty that the United States did, they also made a strategic argument, that they could be very useful allies, and that was an argument that got traction. It got traction with the new revolutionary state of virginia, which began arming and supporting their little fort. The communities that were settled in central kentucky all took a form of Something Like this where cabins were built and a circle with palisades so the community became kind of a makeshift fort. These guys recognized from the beginning that they were operating in territory where they would be regarded as hostile invaders, and it was incumbent upon them to defend themselves against both native americans that might not want them there, and also, as the war progressed against, you know, the pressures of british arms as well, one of the key people involved in this process let me ask you this. When you think of daniel boone, do you think of him as a figure of the American Revolution . He is familiar. Everyone knows who daniel boone was. He was a Great American frontiersman, right . Think of him in the era of Davey Crockett, but its weird because daniel boone and Davey Crockett are generations apart. Davey crockett was at the alamo. When was the battle of the alamo . 1840s. We are talking about 1775. This is when Daniel Boones most single famous act of pioneering took place. He led a party of settlers in the wake of dunmores war through the Cumberland Gap into central kentucky. Towns foundedst and itssborough, weird to think of daniel boone as a revolutionary war hero. His most famous act occurred before the United States even existed. In our popular imagination, we dont place him in time here. Because we dont think of the American Revolution as a pioneering era. But the American Revolution is the first pioneering era and the first intrepid western explores occupiers, you know, swung into action in the revolution and kentucky. Ill say more about daniel boone in minute, but hold that thought. Just to kind of talk quickly about the war experience in central kentucky. The various communities of central kentucky petitioned both the Virginia Legislature and the Continental Congress for support, and they received that support. The Virginia House of delegates, first of all, extended its jurisdiction across all of what is now kentucky. It created a great big new western county so that those new communities in central kentucky would have, you know, kind of a framework for government. And it started sending regular supplies of powder and lead, so that these settlements could defend themselves. The Continental Congress also responded favorably to these petitions. Beginning in july of 1776, the Continental Congress manned and supplied three new for the to toforts on the ohio river protect and support these new kentucky settlements. During the fall and winter of 1776, it sent two tons of powder, four tons of lead, boats to carry 1,500 men and food to support 2,000 people for six months. Thats a fair amount of war material that the Continental Congress was providing to kentucky at a very early stage. Then when conditions deteriorated in the following spring, congress sent a thousand rifles and another ton of lead, so from the beginning of the war effort, these small embattled kentucky communities were fortunate to receive the support of revolutionary governments both at the state level and at the national level. The ohio indians, meanwhile, were in a difficult position. They were somewhat divided in terms of a sense of their loyalties. The article that i asked you to read for today talked little bit about the ohio indians and their decisions, their loyalties, the ohio indians had had a fairly long connection by 1776 to the british empire, but they also had a fairly long connection to the pennsylvania traders, so they had preexisting relationships with both the british and the americans that could have led them in either direction. Initially both governments hoped that they would remain neutral, and u. S. Leaders pleaded with them to just stay out of the revolution. Told them it was just an internal spat between the colonies and english and they had nothing to do with it, but it became clear quickly that the u. S. Was putting a lot of new pressure on their territory, and so gradually, by about 1777, a Large Coalition of ohio indians had decided that their interests lay with the british empire, with the effort of the british to defeat the americans, and they began fighting against the kentucky settlements with british support. So from 1777 on, most of the ohio indians found themselves aligned with the british. Even though you know from that article we read a little earlier in the semester about white eyes in the delawares, there was an earlier period where white eyes and large factions of delawares thought their best bet was to ally themselves with the United States. The kentucky settlements helped change that dynamic for them. The war ended in 1783. The fighting ended in 1781, but the war was concluded in 1783 with the treaty of paris. One of the wellknown facts about this treaty, in this document that defined the peace between Great Britain and the United S