The Allegheny Frontier

The Allegheny frontier, comprising the mountainous area of present-day West Virginia and bordering states, is studied here in a broad context of frontier history and national development. The region was significant in the great American westward movement, but Otis K. Rice seeks also to call attention to the impact of the frontier experience upon the later history of the Allegheny Highlands. He sees a relationship between its prolonged frontier experience and the problems of Appalachia in the twentieth century. Through an intensive study of the social, economic, and political developments in pioneer West Virginia, Rice shows that during the period 1730–1830 some of the most significant features of West Virginia life and thought were established. There also appeared evidences of arrested development, which contrasted sharply with the expansiveness, ebullience, and optimism commonly associated with the American frontier. In this period customs, manners, and folkways associated with the conquest of the wilderness to root and became characteristic of the mountainous region well into the twentieth century. During this pioneer period, problems also took root that continue to be associated with the region, such as poverty, poor infrastructure, lack of economic development, and problematic education. Since the West Virginia frontier played an important role in the westward thrust of migration through the Alleghenies, Rice also provides some account of the role of West Virginia in the French and Indian War, eighteenth-century land speculations, the Revolutionary War, and national events after the establishment of the federal government in 1789.

Bands of Iroquois, the ill-fated General Braddock and Gilded Age tycoons have all roamed Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountains. The rough peaks and dense woods of the Alleghenies were the nation’s first barrier to westward expansion. From frontier skirmishes and daring escapes along the Underground Railroad to the triumphs and tragedies of the Industrial Revolution, local journalist Dave Hurst explores the fascinating history and distinctive culture of the region. He regales readers with tales of fly-fishing, bold outdoorsmen, the legend of Johnny Appleseed and the origins of the banana split to capture the essence of Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountains.

This is, without a doubt, one of the most celebrated accounts of life on the Virginia frontier ever written. However, it is more than that, for it is also the genealogical account of the Draper and Ingles families, who were later memorialized in the novels of Laura Ingles Wilder. Mr. Hale's concern, of course, is on "the progressive frontier explorations and settlements along the entire Virginia border, from the Alleghenies to the Ohio, and from the New River-Kanawha and tributaries in the Southwest, where settlements first began, to the Monogahela and tributaries, in the Northwest and along the Ohio, where the frontier line of settlements was last to be advanced. . . ." His focal point is the region of the New River-Kanawha in present-day Montgomery and Pulaski counties, Virginia. Chronologically, the account picks up in the 1740s but truly hits its stride in 1755 with the Indian attack at Draper's Meadows, which resulted in the deaths of a number of settlers and the capture (and ultimate escape) of Mary Ingles and Bettie Draper. The author ably uses the device of the Indian raid and subsequent flight to tell us about life along the frontier and the names of the families who settled there. Other chapters are devoted to the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774 and biographical sketches of its participants. Point Pleasant, in fact, prefigured the conflicts that characterized the frontier theater of the American Revolution. Elsewhere Mr. Hale provides a detailed chronology of milestones along the Trans-Allegheny, Daniel Boone's years along the New River-Kanawha, and a sketch of the early history and progress of nearby Charleston, West Virginia. This is essential reading for anyone interested in frontier history or the genealogies of mid-18th century families who resided in the Valley of Virginia.

Among the many upheavals in North America caused by the French and Indian War was a commonplace practice that affected the lives of thousands of men, women, and children: being taken captive by rival forces. Most previous studies of captivity in early America are content to generalize from a small selection of sources, often centuries apart. In Setting All the Captives Free, Ian Steele presents, from a mountain of data, the differences rather than generalities as well as how these differences show the variety of circumstances that affected captives’ experiences. The product of a herculean effort to identify and analyze the captives taken on the Allegheny frontier during the era of the French and Indian War, Setting All the Captives Free is the most complete study of this topic. Steele explores genuine, doctored, and fictitious accounts in an innovative challenge to many prevailing assumptions and arguments, revealing that Indians demonstrated humanity and compassion by continuing to take numerous captives when their opponents took none, by adopting and converting captives into kin during the war, and by returning captives even though doing so was a humiliating act that betrayed their societies' values. A fascinating and comprehensive work by an acclaimed scholar, Setting All the Captives Free takes the study of the French and Indian War in America to an exciting new level.

With one of the weakest economies in the nation and a college attendance level lowest among the states, West Virginia has recently concentrated resources on combating its isolation from eastern markets and improving the quality of its public schools. The authors explore how West Virginians cope with these problems-compounded by the state's relatively high rates of occupational injury, teenage pregnancy, maternal health problems, heart disease, lung disease, and cancer-and how they choose to govern and be governed while seeking solutions. The authors argue that West Virginia's political system is affected by institutional rules, roles, and processes conditioned by the availability of economic resources. They examine the state's historical, political, judicial, and cultural practices, illuminating the policy consequences of limited institutional capacity on the economy, education, the environment, and healthcare. All four of the authors are at West Virginia University. Richard A. Brisbin Jr. is an associate professor of political science and the author of Justice Antonin Scalia and the Conservative Revival. Robert Jay Dilger is director of the Institute for Public Affairs and a professor of political science. His works include West Virginia in the 1990s: Opportunities for Economic Progress. Allan S. Hammock, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Political Science, is the coeditor of West Virginia Policy Issues. Christopher Z. Mooney is an assistant professor of political science and the coauthor of Bootstrapping: A Nonparametric Approach to Statistical Inference.