A Declaration of Independence
By Gilien Silsby
In his new book, “At the Edge of Empire: The Backcountry in British
North America” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), USC College
historian Peter Mancall looks at the distinctive backcountry culture
that inspired a desire for independence long before 1776.
“Since the founding of Plymouth and Jamestown, the West has played a
major role in shaping American history,” says Mancall, who also directs
the USC-Huntington Library Early Modern Studies Institute.
“The backcountry was not a fixed place, but rather a shifting
geographic and metaphoric region that evolved as the British Empire
expanded westward,” he says. From the early 17th to the late 18th
centuries, the land lying to the west of Colonial settlements remained
dominated by Native Americans but also became the home to Colonial
explorers and traders, and was sought after by land-hungry settlers and
speculators, he explains.
“At the Edge of Empire” chronicles the interactions between Colonists
and Indians, who came together to make alliances, fight wars, and trade
goods and ideas. It describes the devastation suffered by Native
populations, societies and cultures exposed to the virulent pathogens
brought by Europeans to North America.
Mancall and co-author Eric Hinderaker, who teaches at the University of
Utah, trace English experiences with the backcountry to the medieval
Anglo-Norman expansion in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, where English
authorities and settlers repeatedly encountered native populations
resistant to alien rule. This earlier experience shaped a culture in
which violence toward others was accepted as a part of daily life, says
Mancall.
“We set out to write an engaging narrative history that we hoped would
deepen and widen our understanding of America’s Colonial experience,”
Mancall adds. “We hope people will look at our history a little bit
differently.”
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