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Daniel P. Barr - A Colony Sprung from Hell: Pittsburgh and the Struggle for Authority on the Western Pennsylvania Frontier, 1744-1794

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A Colony Sprung from Hell: Pittsburgh and the Struggle for Authority on the Western Pennsylvania Frontier, 1744-1794
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Daniel P Barr
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Kent State University Press
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The early settlement of the region around Pittsburgh was characterized by a messy collision of personal, provincial, national, and imperial interests. Driven by the efforts of Europeans, Pennsylvanians, Virginians, and Indians, almost everyone attempted to manipulate the clouded political jurisdiction of the region. A Colony Sprung from Hell traces this complex struggle. The events and episodes that make up the story highlight the difficulties of creating and consolidating authority along the frontier, where the local populations acceptance or denial of authority determined the extent to which any government could impose its will. Ultimately, what was at stake was the nature of authority itself.

Author Daniel P. Barr demonstrates that deep divisions marked efforts to exercise power over the western Pennsylvania frontier and limited the effectiveness of such attempts. They developed roughly along provincial lines, owing to a fierce competition between Pennsylvania and Virginia to incorporate the region into their colonies. This jurisdictional dispute permeated many social and political levels, impacting all those who sought power and influence along the western Pennsylvania frontier. Individuals, businesses, provincial governments, and British policymakers competed for jurisdiction in the political and legal arenas, while migrants, settlers, and Indians opposed one another on the ground in a contest that was far more confrontational and violent. Although the participants and the nature of the conflict changed over time, the fundamental question--who was going to make the important decisions regarding the region--remained unsettled and unanswered, resulting in a consistent pattern of discord and contention.

A Colony Sprung from Hell is an important contribution to the understanding of power and authority along the late colonial frontier.

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A Colony Sprung from Hell

A Colony Sprung
from Hell

Pittsburgh and the Struggle for Authority on the Western Pennsylvania Frontier, 17441794

DANIEL P. BARR

The Kent State University Press
KENT, OHIO

2014 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2013043020

ISBN 978-1-60635-190-1

Maufactured in the United States of America

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Barr, Daniel P., 1971

A colony sprung from hell : Pittsburgh and the struggle for authority on the western

Pennsylvania frontier, 17441794 / Daniel P. Barr

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60635-190-1 (hardcover)

1. PennsylvaniaHistory18th century. 2. Pittsburgh Region (Pa.)History18th century. 3. JurisdictionPennsylvaniaPittsburgh RegionHistory18th century. 4. JurisdictionPennsylvaniaHistory18th century. 5. Frontier and pioneer life PennsylvaniaPittsburgh Region. 6. PennsylvaniaHistoryColonial period, ca. 16001775. 7. PennsylvaniaHistoryRevolution, 17751783. I. Title. II. Title: Pittsburgh and the struggle for authority on the western Pennsylvania frontier, 17441794.

F152.B38 2014

974.802dc23

2013043020

18 17 16 15 14 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

The Most Unaccountable Country and
Inhabitants in the World

D uring the summer of 1761, Colonel Henry Bouquet took measure of his surroundings. The son of a prosperous innkeeper from the town of Rolle, near Lake Geneva in Switzerland, the forty-two-year-old professional soldier had led an interesting life. At age seventeen, Bouquet enlisted in a Swiss professional regiment, continuing a family tradition of military service. Numerous European heads of state employed Swiss professional soldiers, who earned great notoriety for their professionalism and loyalty. Bouquets regiment saw action in Italy during King Georges War (known in Europe as the War of Austrian Succession), and after the war he became a lieutenant colonel in the Swiss Guards serving the Prince of Orange, ruler of the Dutch Republic. It was there that Bouquet met British ambassador Sir Joseph Yorke, who recommended the young officer for service in the British army headed for North America. War had erupted between Great Britain and France, and following the defeat of Major General Edward Braddocks army in 1755, the British government was reorganizing its military forces. The British were particularly interested in European-trained officers to command German-speaking soldiers from the American colonies, who comprised an important part of the new Royal American regiment. In 1756, Bouquet arrived in Philadelphia, where he helped recruit and train a battalion of Pennsylvania German soldiers. After an unfulfilling eighteen-month stint in South Carolina, Bouquet and his regiment were back in Pennsylvania, attached to the army of Brigadier General John Forbes, who advanced across the Pennsylvania countryside during the summer of 1758 and captured Fort Duquesne, a French outpost at the forks of the Ohio River. Following the untimely death of Forbes, Bouquet inherited the responsibility of

It was at Pittsburgh, within his quarters at the massive Fort Pitt, that Bouquet paused to reflect on his surroundings. Although he was European by birth, Bouquet had come to consider Pennsylvania his mother country in America. While little is known of his education and formative background, Bouquet developed an interest in learning, mathematics, and science uncommon to most career soldiers. He immensely enjoyed the genteel life of Philadelphia, where he became friendly with the towns leading citizens, wooed the daughter of a prominent merchant, and cultivated the esteem, respect, and affection of Benjamin Franklin. But his military career often took him away from such pursuits, and he spent most of his time in Pennsylvania on the western frontier, a service he greeted with a fair amount of despondency. Bouquet found garrison life at Fort Pitt particularly uncomfortable. He often complained to friends that he was ignorant of all that is happening in the world, a reflection on the extreme remoteness of the post, situated some 300 miles from his urbane associations in Philadelphia. At times, loneliness and boredom wore at Bouquets resolve. I have come to the conclusion that we are in fact machines, subject to the influence of the places in which we live, he wrote to a confidant. The imagination is all smiles when we are content, and if the contrary occurs, everyone frowns.

Bouquet had much to frown over at Pittsburgh, where he consistently labored to execute his duties with diligence and professionalism, no easy feat given the considerable challenges that attended his command. Bouquets most vexing frustrations involved the local population. A chaotic, largely spontaneous village had grown up outside Fort Pitts walls, populated by a virtual cross-section of colonial society. With no civilian authority to govern the more than 300 inhabitants, disorder and rebelliousness prevailed in Pittsburgh, where vice, robbery, murder, and drunkenness challenged Bouquet on a daily basis. James Kenny, a Quaker merchant who arrived in Pittsburgh not long after Bouquet, was shocked by the state of lawlessness and the depravity of local society. It seems as if I was some obstruction to the province of Satans government or kingdom at the place, he recorded in his journal, since none of the temptations has effect to draw me into the practices that are too common here. Bouquet concurred with Kennys damning assessment, concluding that without civilian authority to restrain the inhabitants, the region was little more than a colony sprung from hell for the scourge of mankind.

Twenty years after Bouquet made his observations, General William Irvine arrived in Pittsburgh to take command of the Continental Armys

This book is about the frontier world Bouquet and Irvine described. It traces a complex struggle to establish political authority over the western Pennsylvania frontier during the second half of the eighteenth century. The narrative centers on the establishment of Pittsburgh and the settlement of the surrounding region, but its focus is the negotiation and appropriation of power in the region. The events and episodes that make up the story highlight the difficulties of creating and consolidating authority along the frontier, where the local populations acceptance or denial of authority determined the extent to which any government could impose its will. Yet, ultimately what was at stake was the nature of authority itself. During the American Revolution, the terms of the relationship between the governed and the government became the most important consideration in the construction of authority. The local population set those terms, laying a foundation for authority based on local understandings of the responsibilities of the government to its citizens. For people living along the western Pennsylvania frontier, revolutionary concepts of liberty and equality were less important than the ability of government to provide security and stability.

From the start, deep divisions marked efforts to exercise power over the western Pennsylvania frontier and limited the effectiveness of such attempts. These divisions developed roughly along provincial lines, owing to a fierce competition between Pennsylvania and Virginia to incorporate the region into their colonies. This jurisdictional dispute permeated many social and political levels, impacting all those who sought power and influence along the western Pennsylvania frontier. During the long course of the dispute, private individuals, businesses, provincial governments, and British policy makers waged a competitive battle for jurisdiction in the political and legal arenas of early America, while migrants, settlers, and Indians opposed one another on the ground in a contest that was far more confrontational and violent. Although the participants and the nature of contention changed over time, the fundamental questionwho was going to make the important decisions regarding the regionremained an unsettled and unanswered constant, weaving together the various strings of discord into a consistent pattern of contention. It was the struggle itself, as a sum process greater than its parts, that was the most important part of the story. Its significance lies in the failure of any of these groups to establish legitimate authority in the region, which resulted in the emergence of the highly contentious, locally animated political culture around Pittsburgh that both Bouquet and Irvine struggled to understand.

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