"Pass the Bounds of Verse": Arthur Blackamore's "Expeditio Ultramontana," the Transmontane Expedition, and Forms of Territory in Alexander Spotwood's Virginia

Abstract

This article examines the intersection of the 1716 Transmontane Expedition across the Blue Ridge Mountains and the formal dimensions of configurations of authority in colonial Virginia during Governor Alexander Spotswood's administration, 1710–1722. Through an analysis of the text and circulation of a poem commemorating the expedition, "Expeditio Ultramontana," the article argues that the poem extends Spotswood's efforts to reinforce territorial claims in and around Virginia, thereby revealing the complex interrelation of land and identity in early Virginia.