Reformatted and Index added by Wesley E. Pippenger on behalf of the Virginia Genealogical Society.

Although much has been written about the Old Northwest, The Boundaries between Us fills a void in this historical literature by examining the interaction between Euro-Americans and native peoples and their struggles to gain control of the region and its vast resources. Comprised of twelve original essays, The Boundaries between Us formulates a comprehensive perspective on the history and significance of the contest for control of the Old Northwest. The essays examine the socio cultural contexts in which natives and newcomers lived, tradod, negotiated, interacted, and fought, delineating the articulations of power and possibility, difference and identity, violence and war that shaped the struggle. The essays do not attempt to present a unified interpretation but, rather, focus on both specific and general topics, revisit and reinterpret well-known events, and underscore how cultural, political, and ideological antagonisms divided the native inhabitants from the newcomers. Together, these thoughtful analyses offer a broad historical perspective on nearly a century of contact, interaction, conflict, and displacement. the history of early America, the frontier, and cultural interaction.

This work provides a history of the Virginia frontier during the French and Indian War. At that time Virginia's frontier extended from the vicinity of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, south to the Carolina border. In addition to the topography of the area, India

Even as the 250th anniversary of its outbreak approaches, the Seven Years' War (otherwise known as the French and Indian War) is still not wholly understood. Most accounts tell the story as a military struggle between British and French forces, with shifting alliances of Indians, culminating in the British conquest of Canada. Scholarly and popular works alike, including James Fennimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, focus on the action in the Hudson River Valley and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Matthew C. Ward tells the compelling story of the war from the point of view of the region where it actually began, and whose people felt the devastating effects of war most keenly-the backcountry communities of Virginia and Pennsylvania. Previous wars in North America had been fought largely on the New England and New York frontiers. But on May 28, 1754, when a young George Washington commanded the first shot fired in western Pennsylvania, fighting spread for the first time to Virginia and Pennsylvania. Ward's original research reveals that on the eve of the Seven Years' War the communities of these colonies were isolated, economically weak, and culturally diverse. He shows in riveting detail how, despite the British empire's triumph, the war brought social chaos, sickness, hunger, punishment, and violence, to the backcountry, much of it at the hands of Indian warriors.Ward's fresh analysis reveals that Indian raids were not random skirmishes, but part of an organized strategy that included psychological warfare designed to make settlers flee Indian territories. It was the awesome effectiveness of this "guerilla" warfare, Ward argues, that led to the most enduring legacies of the war: Indian-hating and an armed population of colonial settlers, distrustful of the British empire that couldn't protect them. Understanding the horrors of the Seven Years' War as experienced in the backwoods thus provides unique insights into the origins of the American republic.