Kentucke's Frontiers

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Kentucke’s Frontiers Craig Thompson Friend • • Indiana INDIANA University Press Bloomington & Indianapolis www.iupress.indiana.edu 1-800-842-6796 A History of the TransAppalachian Frontier Malcolm Rohrbough and Walter Nugent, editors Kentucke’s Frontiers Friend $34.95 Craig Thompson Friend is Professor of History at North Carolina State University. He is author of Along the Maysville Road: The Early American Republic in the Trans-Appalachian West and editor of The Buzzel About Kentuck: Settling the Promised Land. U.S. History American culture has long celebrated the heroism framed by Kentucky’s frontier wars. Spanning the period from the 1720s when Ohio River valley Indians returned to their homeland to the American defeat of the British and their Indian allies in the War of 1812, Kentucke’s Frontiers examines the political, military, religious, and public memory narratives of early Kentucky. Craig Thompson Friend explains how frontier terror framed that heroism, undermining the egalitarian promise of Kentucke and transforming a trans-Appalachian region into an Old South state. From county courts and the state legislature to church tribunals and village stores, patriarchy triumphed over racial and gendered equality, creating political and economic opportunity for white men by denying it for all others. Even in remembering their frontier past, Kentuckians abandoned the egalitarianism of frontier life and elevated white males to privileged places in Kentucky history and memory. “Deftly weaving together numerous interpretive strands, Craig Friend’s firstrate study explains how the passage from ‘Kentucke’ to ‘Kentucky’ turned the first trans-Appalachian frontier from the leading edge of America’s New West to the border of its Old South. This book is both an essential and an elegant read.” Stephen Aron, author of How the West Was Lost: The Transformation of Kentucky From Daniel Boone to Henry Clay KentuckesFmec.indd 1 7/15/10 1:29 PM Kentucke’s Frontiers A History of the Trans-­ Appalachian Frontier Malcolm Rohrbough and Walter Nugent, editors • Kentucke’s Frontiers Craig Thompson Friend • • Indiana University Press Bloomington & Indianapolis This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, Indiana 47404-­ 3797 USA www.iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-­ 842-­ 6796 Fax orders 812-­ 855-­ 7931 Orders by e-­ mail iuporder@indiana.edu© 2010 by Craig Thompson Friend All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of Ameri­ can University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. > The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the Ameri­ can National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-­ 1992. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Friend, Craig Thompson. Kentucke’s frontiers / Craig Thompson Friend. p. cm. — (A history of the trans-Appalachian frontier) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-253-35519-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Kentucky—History—To 1792. 2. Frontier and pioneer life—Kentucky. 3. Kentucky—History, Military. 4. Indians of North America—Kentucky—History. 5. Indians of North America—Wars—Kentucky. 6. Kentucky—Race relations. 7. Kentucky—Social conditions. 8. Patriarchy—Kentucky—History. 9. Political culture—Kentucky—History. 10. Religion and culture— Kentucky—History. I. Title. F454.F75 2010 976.9′01—dc22 2010021943 1 2 3 4 5   15 14 13 12 11 10 For my partner Roderick Glenn Turner, a native Kentuckian • • Lie still and go to sleep, or the Shawnees will catch you. —Elizabeth Shotwell Drake to her children, 1780s ...