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

by Archibald Henderson

Many valuable articles, of both local and national interest, are found in the excellent periodical publications: James Sprunt Historical Monographs and Publications (16 vols., 1900-), published by the University of North Carolina; North Carolina Booklet (18 vols., 1901-), published by the N. C. Society, D. A. R.; Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (27 vols., 1893-); American Historical Magazine (8 vols., 1896-1903); Tennessee Historical Magazine (4 vols., 1915-); Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society (17 vols., 1902-); Mississippi Valley Historical Review (6 vols., 1914-). A notable study is F. J. Turner, The Old West (Wisconsin Historical Society Proceedings, 1908).

There is no adequate account in print of the French and Indian War, in the Old Southwest. Useful sources are E. McCrady, South Carolina under the Royal Government, 1719-1776 (1899); S. A. Ashe, History of North Carolina, 1584-1783 (1 vol., 1908); L. P. Summers, History of South-West Virginia, 1746-1786 (1903); J. P. Hale, Trans-Alleghany Pioneers (1886); J. A. Waddell, Annals of Augusta County, Virginia (1886); S. Kercheval, A History of the Valley of Virginia (third edition, 1902); A. S. Withers, Chronicles of Border Warfare (R. G. Thwaites' edition, 1908); B. R. Carroll, Historical Collections of South Carolina (2 vols., 1886); E. M. Avery, History of the United States (7 vols., 1908), fourth volume; J. G. M. Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee (1853); Calendar Virginia State Papers (11 vols., 1875-1893). An interesting biography is A. M. Waddell, A Colonial Officer and his Times (1890).

The early explorations of the West, and the career of Boone, are treated with reasonable fullness in the admirable publications of the Filson Club of Kentucky (27 vols., 1884-); C. A. Hanna, The Wilderness Trail (2 vols., 1911); John Haywood, Civil and Political History of Tennessee (1823; reprinted 1891), written in delightfully quaint style; L. and R. H. Collins, History of Kentucky (2 vols., 1882), a mine of conglomerate material; N. M. Woods, The Woods-McAfee Memorial (1905); A. B. Hulbert, Pilots of the Republic (1905) and Boone's Wilderness Road (1903), attractively written; R. G. Thwaites, Daniel Boone (1911), a lifeless condensation of Draper's sprawling projected (MS.) biography; and John Filson, Kentucke (1784).

Of the voluminous mass of literature dealing with the Regulation in North Carolina, one should read: J. S. Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina, 1765-1771 (American Historical Association Report, 1894); M. DeL. Haywood, Governor Tryon of North Carolina (1903); H. Husband, An Impartial Relation of the First Rise and Cause of the Present Differences in Publick Affairs, in the Province of North Carolina (1770); and Archibald Henderson, The Origin of the Regulation in North Carolina (American Historical Review, 1916).

In addition to titles already mentioned, the following books and monographs give the best accounts of the Watauga and Cumberland settlements and of the State of Franklin: A. W. Putnam, History of Middle Tennessee (1859), a remarkably interesting book by a real "character"; J. W. Caldwell, Constitutional History of Tennessee (second edition, 1907); F. M. Turner, Life of General John Sevier (1910), in pedestrian style, reasonably accurate for the romantic period only; G. H. Alden, The State of Franklin (American Historical Review, 1903); S. B. Weeks, Joseph Martin (American Historical Association Report, 1894); Archibald Henderson, Isaac Shelby (North Carolina Booklet, 1917-1918). The source book for the Indian war of 1774 is Documentary History of Dunmore's War (Edited by R. G. Thwaites and L. P. Kellogg, 1905). For exhaustive data concerning the King's Mountain campaign and its preliminaries, read L. C. Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes (1881), though the book is lacking in discrimination and deficient in perspective. For a briefer treatment, read D. L. Schenck, North Carolina, 1780-1781 (1889).

Other books and monographs dealing with the period, the westward movement, the settlement of the trans-Alleghany, and the little governments, to be consulted are: James Hall, Sketches of the West (2 vols., 1835) and The Romance of Western History (1857); Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia for 1766-1769 and 1770-1772 (published 1906); G. H. Alden, New Governments West of the Alleghanies before 1780 (published 1897); C. W. Alvord, The Mississippi Valley in British Politics (2 vols., 1917), a notable work, ably written and embodying an immense amount of information; J. T. Morehead, Address at Boonesborough, May 25, 1840 (published 1840); F. J. Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History (Wisconsin Historical Society Proceedings, 1894) and Western State-Making in the Revolutionary Era (American Historical Review, 1895-1896), papers characterised by both brilliance and depth; and Archibald Henderson, The Creative Forces in Westward Expansion (American Historical Review, 1914), The Occupation of Kentucky in 1775 (Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 1914), The Founding of Nashville (Tennessee Historical Magazine, 1916), and The Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee (Tennessee Historical Magazine, 1917).

On the subject of Indian tribes and Indian treaties, the Annual Reports of the Bureau of Ethnology, in especial numbers 5, 18, and 19, although compiled from secondary historical sources and occasionally erroneous in important matters, are useful—as is also Bulletin 22: J. Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East (1895). Rare and interesting works dealing with the Eastern Indian tribes are H. Timberlake, Memoirs (1765); J. Haywood, Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee (1823); and J. Adair, American Indians (1775).

For both wider and more intensive reading in the history of this period, consult: F. J. Turner, List of References on the History of the West (Edition of 1915); A Critical Bibliography of Kentucky History, in R. M. McElroy, Kentucky in the Nation's History (1909); S. B. Weeks, A Bibliography of the Historical Literature of North Carolina (1895); E. G. Swem, A Bibliography of Virginia (Part I, 1916); and the bibliographies in J. Phelan, History of Tennessee (1888); E. McCrady, South Carolina under the Royal Government, 1719-1776 (published 1899) and South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780 (published 1901); and E. M. Avery, A History of the United States (1908), volumes 4, 5, and 6.

Note. For the use of a complete set of transcripts of the Richard Henderson Papers in the Draper Collection, I am indebted to the North Carolina Historical Commission through the courtesy of the Secretary, Mr. R. D. W. Connor.