A Guide to Reading the Social History of the Ohio Valley, 1780–1830

A Guide to Reading the Social History of the Ohio Vaney, 1780-1830 R. Douglas Hurt The social history of the Ohio Valley invites considerable comparative study considering the variety of communities established by settlers from New England, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the South. A host of cultural and ethnic ties as well as a multiplicity of religious denominations and profound political differel1ces affected settlement patterns in the Ohio Valley. Moreover, scholars are giving new attention to the Ohio Valley, and their publications are becoming prodigious. Indeed, the secondary literature on the social history of the region has expanded considerably during the past quarter century, and any introduction to it can only be suggestive. Even so, a fresh synthesis that takes into account the new methodological and interpretive approaches and topics that have contributed to 'the social historiography of the Ohio Valley during the late twentieth century needs to be written. The following sources will help any scholar embarking on such a grand undertaking, as well as other interested readers with more limited and specific needs for teaching and research. Anyone interested in the history of the Ohio Valley will do well to begin with R. Carlyle Buley, The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period I 8I 5-I 840, 2 vols. (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, I950). Although dated, this study provides a compendium for a host of social topics, such as settlement practices, frontier life, leisure-time activities, medicine, education, religion, and cultural life. In many respects, Buley's study can best be used as an encyclopedia reference for topics about the region. Although historians are no longer interested in chronicling everyday life in the manner of Buley, his work remains essential for understanding much about the pioneering period in the Ohio Valley. In addition to Buley's work, scholars and students of Ohio Valley's social history should consult Malcolm J. Rohrbough, The Trans-Appalachian Fl'Ontier: People, Societies, and Institutions, I77 5Spring 200I I8S0 (New York: Oxford University Press, I978). Rohrbough is particularly good at discussing first- and second-generation nligration with an emphasis on family, community, and county-level affairs. See also Andrew R. 1. Cayton and Peter S. Onuf, The Midwest and the Nation: Rethinking the History of an American Region (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990) for an analysis of the midwestern portion of the Ohio Valley in relation to national history. Cayton and Onuf note cultural influences on settlement patterns and the communities that developed in the region. And Eric Hinderaker provides considerable discussion of everyday life and social relationships in his book, Elnsive Empires: Constructing Colonialism in the Ohio Valley, I673-I800 (New York: Cambridge University Press, I997). Hinderaker also analyzes the trade that connected Indian, French, British, and American empires, and he explains the social and cultural effects of trade on communities in the Ohio Valley. Carl J. Ekberg provides the best study of French settlement in a portion of the Ohio Valley in French Roots in the Illinois Conntry: The Mississippi Fl'Ontier ill Colonial Times (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, I998). Ekberg's discussion of unique French settlement, agricultural, and slave practices considerably enhances the diverse cultural history of the Ohio Valley. He discusses, for example, the distinctive use of longlots for open-field agriculture, which fostered compact settlement and nuclear villages for defense, and he traces that survey system to French Canada and metropolitan France. Ekberg particularly reminds us that French settlers had considerable experience settling the Illinois country before the arrival of the British or Anglo Americans, and they passed much of their cultural legacy to those who followed. Insight into French society in Illinois also can be gained from Clarence Walworth Alvord, The Illinois Conntry, I673-I8I8 (Chicago: A. C. A Guide to Reading the Social History of the Ohio Valley McClurg, 1922) which argues that social distinctions were weak and easily crossed in that region. See also Lucy Jayne Botscharow-Kamau, "Neighbors: Harmony and Conflict on the Indiana Frontier," Journal of the Early Republic II (1991): 507-29; John Francis McDermott, The FTench in the Mississippi Valley (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965); and Paul 1. Stevens, ,I/One of the Most Beautiful Regions of the...