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

Abstract

In A Colony Sprung from Hell, Daniel P. Barr tells the story of the struggle for authority in the lands surrounding the forks of the Ohio River (modern-day Pittsburgh) in the second half of the eighteenth century. He contends that the disputes over power that marked this region were a product of the chronic inability of provincial, imperial, or national authorities to effectively govern the western Pennsylvania frontier. Barr highlights how governments lacked the legitimacy or resources to impose their will over the region and that war and social conflict undermined whatever efforts they did muster. Moreover, in response to the repeated failures of external entities to provide order, the region's growing population of white settlers developed a localist political culture that was suspicious of outsiders, placed local needs before the interests of outside authorities, and, as a result, hampered governments' efforts to assert control. Barr's book joins a number of recent borderland studies that portray early America's frontier zones as places sought after and influenced by many, but controlled by none. Thus, A Colony Sprung from Hell does not so much break new ground as add a valuable case study to a now familiar view of the backcountry. Through his analysis of the contest over the Ohio forks, Barr provides an excellent window into the complex, multi-faceted nature of the battle for property and power along the early American frontier. He shows that the conflict involved various Native American nations, the provinces (and later states) of Pennsylvania and Virginia, ordinary settlers, powerful land speculators, British imperial officials, and, finally, the government of the United States.