A Colony Sprung from Hell: Pittsburgh and the Struggle for Authority on the Western Pennsylvania Frontier, 1744–1794 by Daniel P. Barr (review)

In A Colony Sprung From Hell: Pittsburgh and the Struggle for Authority on the Western Pennsylvania Frontier, 1744–1794, Daniel P. Barr chronicles the efforts of the colonies/states of Virginia and Pennsylvania, Great Britain, and the American Congress to secure, stabilize, and govern the western Pennsylvania backcountry. From the early settlement of the region to the Whiskey Rebellion, Barr reveals the inability of these groups to control the unceasing Indian warfare, contentious land speculation efforts, colonial border disputes, and localist political sentiment that plagued the region in the eighteenth century.

Barr divides his study of these efforts to project authority in the region into three phases. In Part I: Competition, Barr focuses on the efforts of Pennsylvania and Virginia land speculators and “expansionist-minded politicians” to assert claims over the region (6–8). From the earliest efforts to settle and speculate in the region through the French and Indian War, the colonies of Pennsylvania and Virginia aggressively vied for control of the region. The absence of clear colonial boundaries, the efforts of politically connected land companies (e.g., the Ohio Company), and the threat posed by the French and their Indian allies left the region ungoverned and vulnerable. The inability of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the British imperial administration to defend the region’s communities led to growing anger among western residents and their refusal to support the British war effort.

Part II: Regulation examines the British postwar efforts to control the region and to prevent costly Indian warfare. The continued “intercolonial rivalry” for the region between Virginia and Pennsylvania, Ohio Indian threat, and ineffectiveness of British frontier policies undermined imperial postwar efforts to bring stability and peace to the region, restart Native American trade, and quieten festering regional localism (17). The growth of the region’s population, chaos surrounding Pontiac’s Rebellion and Lord Dunmore’s War, lack of civilian civic and political institutions, increased lawlessness, regional political factionalism, and growth of Indian hatred continued to make governance of the region virtually impossible. Barr argues that the failure of British frontier authority and unpopular western policies (e.g., Proclamation of 1763) resulted in a postwar “power vacuum,” hostility to outside political interference, repeated violations of western policies (e.g., squatting, illegal land sales), and the escalation of the competition for the region by Virginia and Pennsylvania (133).

In Part III: Revolution, Barr explores the efforts of the American government to control the region during the revolutionary period. Barr argues that the American Revolution in western Pennsylvania was simply part of the “long struggle for power and authority in the region” (169). The chaos surrounding the revolution and the continued confusion regarding state borders perpetuated the contest for the region between Virginia and Pennsylvania. The inability of the American and eastern state governments to address the wartime regional threats posed by loyalists and British-allied Indians continued to foster antigovernment sentiment in the region. As the violence and chaos continued to escalate during the war, the region’s growing localism and anger at distant governments resulted in military insubordination, resistance to supporting the American war effort, and rampant extralegal land speculation and squatting. The region’s leaders framed the American Revolution in local terms and acted according to regional interests. As the war approached completion, the new American government continued to struggle to govern the region, control Indian violence, halt squatting, and provide food and resources to the remote region. The failure of the American Congress to establish control over the region led regional leaders to launch “local initiatives” aimed at colonial defense and asserting local autonomy. Additionally, the absence of political authority in the region continued to fuel Pennsylvania and Virginia’s contest for the region, and the intercolonial contest for the forks of the Ohio ended only after a postwar agreement between Virginia and Pennsylvania at Baltimore...