Colony Sprung from Hell

P. Barr Daniel

Description

The early settlement of the region around Pittsburgh was characterized by a messy collision of personal, provincial, national, and imperial interests. Driven by the efforts of Europeans, Pennsylvanians, Virginians, and Indians, almost everyone attempted to manipulate the clouded political jurisdiction of the region. A Colony Sprung from Hell traces this complex struggle. The events and episodes that make up the story highlight the difficulties of creating and consolidating authority along the frontier, where the local population's acceptance or denial of authority determined the extent to which any government could impose its will. Ultimately, what was at stake was the nature of authority itself.Author Daniel P. Barr demonstrates that deep divisions marked efforts to exercise power over the western Pennsylvania frontier and limited the effectiveness of such attempts. They developed roughly along provincial lines, owing to a fierce competition between Pennsylvania and Virginia to incorporate the region into their colonies. This jurisdictional dispute permeated many social and political levels, impacting all those who sought power and influence along the western Pennsylvania frontier. Individuals, businesses, provincial governments, and British policymakers competed for jurisdiction in the political and legal arenas, while migrants, settlers, and Indians opposed one another on the ground in a contest that was far more confrontational and violent. Although the participants and the nature of the conflict changed over time, the fundamental question-who was going to make the important decisions regarding the region-remained unsettled and unanswered, resulting in a consistent pattern of discord and contention.A Colony Sprung from Hell is an important contribution to the understanding of power and authority along the late colonial frontier.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Pensilvania
• Local history
• Pennsylvania
• History of the Americas
• Pennsylvanie

Informations

• Publié par: The Kent State University Press
• Date de parution: 29 mai 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612778280
• Langue: English

Extrait

A Colony Sprung from Hell
A Colony Sprung from Hell

Pittsburgh and the Struggle for Authority on the Western Pennsylvania Frontier, 1744–1794
DANIEL P. BARR
The Kent State University Press KENT, OHIO
© 2014 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2013043020
ISBN 978-1-60635-190-1
Maufactured in the United States of America
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Barr, Daniel P., 1971–
A colony sprung from hell : Pittsburgh and the struggle for authority on the western
Pennsylvania frontier, 1744–1794 / Daniel P. Barr
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60635-190-1 (hardcover) ∞
1. Pennsylvania—History—18th century. 2. Pittsburgh Region (Pa.)—History—18th century. 3. Jurisdiction—Pennsylvania—Pittsburgh Region—History—18th century. 4. Jurisdiction—Pennsylvania—History—18th century. 5. Frontier and pioneer life— Pennsylvania—Pittsburgh Region. 6. Pennsylvania—History—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775. 7. Pennsylvania—History—Revolution, 1775–1783. I. Title. II. Title: Pittsburgh and the struggle for authority on the western Pennsylvania frontier, 1744–1794.
F152.B38 2014
974.8′02—dc23
2013043020
18   17   16   15   14          5   4   3   2   1
Contents
Introduction: The Most Unaccountable Country and Inhabitants in the World
PART I: COMPETITION
1 Provinces Will Be Jealous of One Another
2 Great Application, Many Arguments, and Much Difficulty
3 War Against the English
PART II: REGULATION
4 Quiet and Peaceable Possession?
5 Shadows of Law and Justice
6 A Spirit of Hostility
PART III: REVOLUTION
7 A Party Spirit Prevails
8 A Bad Character of Quarrelling
9 Mutual Distrust and Jealousy
10 The Ends of the American Earth
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
 
The Most Unaccountable Country and Inhabitants in the World
D uring the summer of 1761, Colonel Henry Bouquet took measure of his surroundings. The son of a prosperous innkeeper from the town of Rolle, near Lake Geneva in Switzerland, the forty-two-year-old professional soldier had led an interesting life. At age seventeen, Bouquet enlisted in a Swiss professional regiment, continuing a family tradition of military service. Numerous European heads of state employed Swiss professional soldiers, who earned great notoriety for their professionalism and loyalty. Bouquet’s regiment saw action in Italy during King George’s War (known in Europe as the War of Austrian Succession), and after the war he became a lieutenant colonel in the Swiss Guards serving the Prince of Orange, ruler of the Dutch Republic. It was there that Bouquet met British ambassador Sir Joseph Yorke, who recommended the young officer for service in the British army headed for North America. War had erupted between Great Britain and France, and following the defeat of Major General Edward Braddock’s army in 1755, the British government was reorganizing its military forces. The British were particularly interested in European-trained officers to command German-speaking soldiers from the American colonies, who comprised an important part of the new Royal American regiment. In 1756, Bouquet arrived in Philadelphia, where he helped recruit and train a battalion of Pennsylvania German soldiers. After an unfulfilling eighteen-month stint in South Carolina, Bouquet and his regiment were back in Pennsylvania, attached to the army of Brigadier General John Forbes, who advanced across the Pennsylvania countryside during the summer of 1758 and captured Fort Duquesne, a French outpost at the forks of the Ohio River. Following the untimely death of Forbes, Bouquet inherited the responsibility of consolidating the British hold on the Ohio forks, helping to establish the foundation for what became the town of Pittsburgh. 1
It was at Pittsburgh, within his quarters at the massive Fort Pitt, that Bouquet paused to reflect on his surroundings. Although he was European by birth, Bouquet had come to consider Pennsylvania his “mother country in America.” While little is known of his education and formative background, Bouquet developed an interest in learning, mathematics, and science uncommon to most career soldiers. He immensely enjoyed the genteel life of Philadelphia, where he became friendly with the town’s leading citizens, wooed the daughter of a prominent merchant, and cultivated the “esteem, respect, and affection” of Benjamin Franklin. But his military career often took him away from such pursuits, and he spent most of his time in Pennsylvania on the western frontier, a service he greeted with a fair amount of despondency. Bouquet found garrison life at Fort Pitt particularly uncomfortable. He often complained to friends that he was “ignorant of all that is happening in the world,” a reflection on the extreme remoteness of the post, situated some 300 miles from his urbane associations in Philadelphia. At times, loneliness and boredom wore at Bouquet’s resolve. “I have come to the conclusion that we are in fact machines, subject to the influence of the places in which we live,” he wrote to a confidant. “The imagination is all smiles when we are content, and if the contrary occurs, everyone frowns.” 2
Bouquet had much to frown over at Pittsburgh, where he consistently labored to execute his duties with diligence and professionalism, no easy feat given the considerable challenges that attended his command. Bouquet’s most vexing frustrations involved the local population. A chaotic, largely spontaneous village had grown up outside Fort Pitt’s walls, populated by a virtual cross-section of colonial society. With no civilian authority to govern the more than 300 inhabitants, disorder and rebelliousness prevailed in Pittsburgh, where vice, robbery, murder, and drunkenness challenged Bouquet on a daily basis. James Kenny, a Quaker merchant who arrived in Pittsburgh not long after Bouquet, was shocked by the state of lawlessness and the depravity of local society. “It seems as if I was some obstruction to the province of Satan’s government or kingdom at the place,” he recorded in his journal, “since none of the temptations has effect to draw me into the practices that are too common here.” Bouquet concurred with Kenny’s damning assessment, concluding that without civilian authority to restrain the inhabitants, the region was little more than “a colony sprung from hell for the scourge of mankind.” 3
Twenty years after Bouquet made his observations, General William Irvine arrived in Pittsburgh to take command of the Continental Army’s Western Department. As commander at Fort Pitt during the final years of the American Revolution, Irvine was every bit as unhappy with his frontier assignment as Bouquet had been. The town of Pittsburgh was smaller and slightly more orderly than it had been twenty years earlier, but the population of the surrounding countryside had grown immensely. Like Bouquet, Irvine considered the region’s inhabitants to be his greatest source of consternation. The general occupied an uncomfortable position between the Continental Congress and the local population, a position that more often than not brought him into conflict with the local population, whose priorities and expectations were not the same as those of the national government. Although the general tried to appease the region’s inhabitants, and in some ways even came to understand the context of their rebelliousness, Irvine never quite overcame the locals’ competitive assertions of autonomy. Indeed, under his watch the region devolved into a hellish mix of chaos, violence, and death. Looking out at this unfortunate landscape, Irvine lamented that it was his grave misfortune to have been exiled among “the most unaccountable country and inhabitants in the world.” 4
This book is about the frontier world Bouquet and Irvine described. It traces a complex struggle to establish political authority over the western Pennsylvania frontier during the second half of the eighteenth century. The narrative centers on the establishment of Pittsburgh and the settlement of the surrounding region, but its focus is the negotiation and appropriation of power in the region. The events and episodes that make up the story highlight the difficulties of creating and consolidating authority along the frontier, where the local population’s acceptance or denial of authority determined the extent to which any government could impose its will. Yet, ultimately what was at stake was the nature of authority itself. During the American Revolution, the terms of the relationship between the governed and the government became the most important consideration in the construction of authority. The local population set those terms, laying a foundation for authority based on local understandings of the responsibilities of the government to its citizens. For people living along the western Pennsylvania frontier, revolutionary concepts of liberty and equality were less important than the ability of government to provide security and stability.
From the start, deep divisions marked efforts to exercise power over the western Pennsylvania frontier and limited the effectiveness of such attempts. These divisions developed roughly along provincial lines, owing to a fierce competition between Pennsylvania and Virginia to incorporate the region into their colonies. This jurisdictional dispute permeated many social and political levels, impacting all those who sought power and influence along the western Pennsylvania frontier. During the long course of the dispute, private individuals, businesses, provincial governments, and British policy makers waged a competitive battle for jurisdiction in the political and legal arenas of early America, while migrants, settlers, and Indians opposed one another on the ground in a contest that was far more confrontational and violent. Although the participants and the nature of co