During the course of the seventeenth century, Europeans and Native
Americans came together on the western edge of England's North American
empire for a variety of purposes, from trading goods and information to
making alliances and war. This blurred and constantly shifting frontier
region, known as the backcountry, existed just beyond England's imperial
reach on the North American mainland. It became an area of opportunity,
intrigue, and conflict for the diverse peoples who lived there.
In At the Edge of Empire, Eric Hinderaker and Peter C. Mancall
describe the nature of the complex interactions among these interests,
examining colorful and sometimes gripping instances of familiarity and
uneasiness, acceptance and animosity, and cooperation and conflict, from
individual encounters to such vast undertakings as the Seven Years' War.
Over time, the European settlers who established farms and trading posts
in the backcountry displaced the region's Native inhabitants. Warfare
and disease each took a horrifying toll across Indian country, making it
easier for immigrants to establish themselves on lands once peopled only
by Native Americans. Eventually, these pioneers established
economically, culturally, and politically self-sufficient communities
that increasingly resented London's claims of sovereignty. As Hinderaker
and Mancall show, these resentments helped to shape the ideals that
guided the colonists during the American Revolution.
The first book in a new Johns Hopkins series, Regional Perspectives on
Early America, At the Edge of Empire explores one of British America's
most intriguing regions, both widening and deepening our understanding
of North America's colonial experience.
