The Voice of the Frontier: John Bradford's Notes on KentuckyThomas D. Clark From 1826 to 1829, John Bradford, founder of Kentucky's first newspaper, the Kentucky Gazette, reprinted in its pages sixty-six excerpts that he considered important documents on the settlement of the West. Now for the first time all of Bradford's Notes on Kentucky—the primary historical source for Kentucky's early years—are made available in a single volume, edited by the state's most distinguished historian. The Kentucky Gazette was established in 1787 to support Kentucky's separation from Virginia and the formation of a new state. Bradford's Notes deal at length with that protracted debate and the other major issues confronting Bradford and his pioneering neighbors. The early white settlers were obsessed with Indian raids, which continued for more than a decade and caused profound anxiety. A second vexing concern was overlapping land claims, as swarms of settlers flowed into the region. And as quickly as the land was settled, newly opened fields began to yield mountains of produce in need of outside markets. Spanish control of the lower Mississippi and rumors of Spain's plan to close the river for twenty-five years were far more threatening to the new economy than the continuing Indian raids. Equally disturbing was the British occupation of the northwest posts from which it was believed the northern Indianraids emanated. Not until Anthony Wayne's sweeping campaign against the Miami villages and the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1794 was tension from that quarter relieved. Finally, the Jay Treaty with Britain and the Pinckney Treaty with Spain diplomatically cleared the Kentucky frontier for free expansion of the white populace. John Bradford's Notes on Kentucky, now published together for the first time, deal with all of these pertinent issues. No other source portrays so intimately or so graphically the travail of western settlement. |
Contents
3 | |
4 | |
8 | |
4 Opening the Great Western Road | 11 |
5 A Wilderness Ordeal | 16 |
6 Clark of the Ohio | 21 |
7 Raiding the Chillicothe Villages | 26 |
8 Claiming the Land Safeguarding the Frontier | 30 |
37 The Western Defense Council | 149 |
38 Wilkinsons Drive against the Oubache | 153 |
39 St Clairs Dreary March to Defeat | 156 |
40 A New State a New Governor a New Beginning | 163 |
41 To Gentlemen of the Senate and House | 169 |
42 HH Brackenridge on the Indian Problem | 177 |
43 Defense of the Western Attitude | 181 |
44 A Sounding Horn and Hallooing | 186 |
9 The Horrors at Ruddles and Hinkstons Forts | 35 |
10 Clarks Raid against the Piqua Towns | 39 |
11 Bravery under Siege | 42 |
12 Death on the Elkhorn | 46 |
13 Bryans Station | 49 |
14 Tragedy at the Blue Licks | 54 |
15 Retaliation and a Step toward Statehood | 58 |
16 The Resolution to Achieve Statehood | 62 |
17 To the Honorable General Assembly of Virginia | 68 |
18 Resisting a Persistent Enemy | 72 |
19 Converting the District to Statehood | 74 |
20 The Obstinate Inattention of Congress | 78 |
21 The Downing Caper | 81 |
22 The Infamous Jay Treaty | 86 |
23 Robert Pattersons Memoir | 91 |
24 Founding of the Kentucky Gazette | 97 |
25 A Melancholy Experience at Statemaking | 102 |
26 The Enemy at the Door | 105 |
27 Horse Stealing | 109 |
28 Sinister Political Design at Work? | 112 |
29 A Quest in New Orleans | 116 |
30 The Lurking Enemy | 121 |
31 The Fine Hand of James Wilkinson | 125 |
32 The Bloody Ordeal of the Kentucky Frontier | 128 |
33 Governor Randolphs Message | 132 |
34 The Stalking Enemy along Road and River | 136 |
35 The Hubble Expedition | 139 |
36 Setting the Date for Statehood | 145 |
45 Horse Thieves Raiders and the Infernal Excise Duty | 190 |
46 The Democratic Society | 197 |
47 The Last Stand of the Ohio Tribes | 202 |
48 Harassed Kentuckians | 208 |
49 To the Inhabitants of Western America | 213 |
50 Resolving the Western Problems | 220 |
51 The Grand French Design | 224 |
52 The Founding of Transylvania University | 230 |
53A The Seeds of Controversy | 235 |
53B Transylvania Tends to Business | 240 |
54 The Holley Years at Transylvania | 245 |
55A The Age of the Bigots | 250 |
55B The Holley Legacy | 256 |
56 A Numerous Meeting of Respectable People | 262 |
57 British Encroachment in the Northwest | 267 |
58 The French Conspiracy | 273 |
59 The WayneCampbell Exchanges | 281 |
60 Whitley Blount and the Southern Tribes | 288 |
61 Choctaw Creek Cherokee and Chickasaw | 297 |
62 A Young Nation Asserts Its Rights | 302 |
63 Ending Kentuckys Indian Menace | 318 |
64 The Treaty of Greenville | 325 |
65 Reactions to the Jay and Pinckney Treaties | 331 |
66 Open the Great Mississippi | 340 |
Notes | 349 |
Bibliography | 369 |
378 | |