Backcountry History

The Backcountry Defined

Jay Henderson — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:16:48 +0000

The Backcountry is an actual place, or region. Although the word is now used generically to indicate wild or sparsely settled lands, particularly as employed by outdoorsmen, it originally described the sparsely-settled western regions of the American colonies from Pennsylvania south to Georgia.

Celebrate The Fourth of July

Jay Henderson — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:25:14 +0000

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. . . .

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Backcountry Settlers and the Winning of the American Revolution, Part 2

Jay Henderson — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:16:08 +0000

By the summer of 1780, four years after the publication of the Declaration of Independence, the war of American Revolution was going badly for the patriot side and the mood of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia was dark. Most of the conflict had been fought in the northern colonies, with some victories and some defeats and eventually a stalemate. George Washington and the Continental Army had endured, but they had failed to move the British out of the mid-Atlantic and New England colonies. Time did not favor either side; support for the war was flagging both in the colonies and in London. The British had developed a plan to end the war: beginning late in 1779, they made a move the the south, to the Carolinas and Georgia, where there were Tory militias and where the Continental Army was thin. They came so close to winning the war with this strategy that the outcome came down to one place, one day, and a few hundred men.

Backcountry Settlers and the Winning of the American Revolution, Part 1

Jay Henderson — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:44:08 +0000

The history of the colonial Backcountry is often relegated to footnotes or sidebars, if it is mentioned at all, in texts recounting the American Revolution. Yet without the militia formed by the men of the Backcountry, the Patriot cause might have been lost. The situation faced by the Continental Congress and the regular Continental Army in mid-1780 was dire: after four years of war, the British occupied New York City and other ports, the war in the northern colonies was stalemated, and the war in the southern colonies was going badly. Then the Backcountry settlers arose to defend their homes and families, confronted the British at King's Mountain in South Carolina, and in a battle that lasted barely more than an hour turned the tide of the war.

The "Other South"

Jay Henderson — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:43:22 +0000

The Backcountry is the "other South" - - the one you don't see in "Gone With The Wind" and most other depictions of the South. Both the geography of the area and the nature of its European settlers make this region different from the coastal areas.

The Great Wagon Road - America's Original "Interstate Highway"

Jay Henderson — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:40:11 +0000

The Great Wagon Road, which ran from Pennsylvania to Georgia, was the primary route for settlers moving into the Backcountry in Colonial and Early American times. The road began at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and took a northwesterly course through a favorably-low area of the eastern front of the Appalachian mountain range. In the Great Valley, the road eventually hooked up with the Great Trading Path, forming a natural channel of travel and trade which persists, in modern forms, to this day.