1700’s
Appalachia
What to know for tomorrow!
The beginnings….
 }Appalachia’s
first settlers: over 14,000
years ago
 }Ancestors of Iroquois and Cherokee
migrated here 12,000 BC
 }Cherokee most prominent in precolonial Appalachia

but not only: Shawnee, Yuchi, Carawba and
many others
And the Europeans Came:
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}16th c: Spanish explorers in Florida told by
the Apalachee peoples that there was gold in
the mountains north. (truth??)
}By 1562, “Appalachen” appeared on
European maps
}De Soto’s journey took him as far as
Mountains in East TN
}Iroquois began to expand their territory
south (VA, SC, NC)
◦The clashes in Appalachia were multicultural
and multiethnic!
Quick Bellwork Review
“Appalachia”--
from where did
we get that name?
From
what European countries
did settlers come?
On YOUR timelines:
Add
the information as
we go. NEATLY
Kentucky in the 1700’s
1739:
Discovery of a mastadon
graveyard by French explorer
de Longueuil
KY—the “First West”
First
area to be settled outside
of the 13 colonies
More than a century to go a
few hundred miles inland from
the Atlantic, but in another
century, explorers and settlers
would cover the entire
continent!
1750’s
Thomas
Walker: a dr. and
explorer, made his way through
the Cumberland Gap; mapped
the geography
Christopher Gist: surveyor who
explored the Ohio territory on
the Ohio River, first Englishman
to explore this northern part of
Kentucky
Walker: Cumberland Gap
Gist’s voyages: North KY
Why
was Can-tuc-kee
not really occupied by
Native Americans?

(read excerpt from Black Fish)
The Azgens:

The origin of the Azgen legend will probably
never be known, but it shows up in traditional
Cherokee and Shawnee folklore. The Azgen
were a race or tribe of white people who lived
in North America prior to the arrival of the
Native Americans. The Indians called them the
"Moon Eyed People", due to their nocturnal
habits. Some legends even go so far as to
claim that the Azgen were very small and
perfectly white. Nonetheless, the Indians
maintained distance and respect for the
Azgen.

Though the Legend of the Azgen people has its
genesis in the mountains of eastern Kentucky and
Tennessee, the tale directly relates to Ohio and her
history. During the frontier era, and the numerous
Indian wars and treaties that followed, the Indian
tribes of Ohio maintained that Kentucky was a
sacred land and off-limits to everyone. The Indians
could hunt in Kentucky, but could never make
permanent settlement. This notion of a sacred
game preserve, of course, paved the way for the
untamed wilderness that great explorers like Simon
Kenton and Daniel Boone discovered on the
frontier. The frontier accounts of Kentucky's
wilderness were astonishing. It was often
described as a bounty of game, where one could
hardly take a single step in the forest without
scaring off at least one animal.
 Whatever
the origin or nature of the Azgen
legend may be, it is hard to ignore the fact
that the Indian tribes of Ohio regarded
Kentucky as sacred land, and land worth
fighting for. In this vein of thought, it is
also hard to ignore the importance of the
Ohio country to the Indians. For a time, the
tribes maintained the Ohio River as a
boundary between white settlement and
native lands, with Ohio being the so-called
Middle Ground, a place that everyone
wants and none can have.
FRENCH & INDIAN WAR
1754-1763
Impact
on KY
settlement: secured
Ohio River as a major
entryway for waves of
settlers
1760’s
Proclamation
of 1763:
prohibited English settlement
west of the Appalachian
mountains
Obeyed??
 nope--frontiersmen
turn back!
couldn't
Where did the early settlers
come from?
What is the history of these
settlers?

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

}The kings of Scotland and England could not
agree:
◦From 1040-1745 all but three English Monarchs
suffered Scottish invasion or invaded Scotland
}Endemic violence perpetuated poverty
}Land ownership not as important as a horse and
weapons
}Blood relations were highly important; families
became clans; loyalty to the clan, not the Crown
}There was little trust in legal institutions; settled
own disputes through violence
DANIEL BOONE
 1767--Boone’s
first exploration into KY
 1769-71--returned for hunting
expedition
A
“new found Paradise”
 First roads?
 buffalo traces
1770’s


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1773: Boone led settlers into KY but forced
to turn back by natives
1774: Lord Dunmore’s War
 Shawnee did not sign a treaty in the ‘50’s
with Virginia, so they began attacking
frontier settlers. Governor Dunmore
attacked Shawnee. (a distraction? a way
to show these colonials they have no
chance in a rebellion for independence?)
 Shawnee lost this war, ceding all claims
south of Ohio River
1774-75:James Harrod begins first permanent
Kentucky settlement
 1775:
Richard Henderson gathers
Cherokee chiefs at Treaty of
Sycamore Shoals
Purchases most of KY for $50,000
through Transylvania Land
Company
Boone leads settlers through
Cumberland Gap, establishes
Boonesborough
Boone's Biography
 http://www.biography.com/people/dani
el-boone-9219543/videos/daniel-boonefull-episode-2073086474
Henderson’s
land scheme:
to profit, have settlers pay
taxes to him. Claiming it for
British, not Virginia colony.
Dissension amongst
settlers
1776
Settlers
send Rep’s (George
Rogers Clark) to petition VA to
invalidate Henderson’s claim.
Henderson petitions Congress
to make Transylvania the 14th
colony.
VA assembly invalidates
Henderson’s claim. KY
becomes VA land.
Revolutionary War
Major
effect on KY:
British recruit Native
Americans to harass the
frontier settlements.
1778
Shawnee
siege of
Boonesborough
1780’s
 VA
divided KY county into 3
counties: Fayette, Jefferson, Lincoln
 (map)
 1782-83
Battle of Blue Licks
 (map)
 1784:
ten state conventions to
determine statehood
 Why did they want to separate?
(think
geography!)
1790’s
1792:
Statehood (#15)
(takes
nearly 8 years to
meet VA’s demands and
draft a constitution)
Question of slavery
Electoral college at first;
discarded in 1799
1794:
Battle of Fallen Timbers
decisive victory over
the Northwest Indian
Confederation, ending two
decades of border warfare
and securing white settlement
of the former Indian territory
mainly in Ohio through the:
1795: Treaty of Greenville
1796: Wilderness Rd opens for
wagons
POPULATION GROWTH
1792:
100,000
1800: 220,000
1810: 406,000
What
1803?
had happened in
1798:
State legislature
passes KY Resolutions
opposing Alien and
Sedition Acts
Nullification
States rights