Backcountry vs Frontier

"Before 1776 the region . . . . . was known as the "back settlements" or the "backcountry." or merely the "back parts." Scarcely anyone thought of it as the "frontier: . . . ," state the authors of "Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement" published 2000 by University of Virginia Press on page136.

Frontier is a French word. The area out west was the back country. That was what all the letters of the officers of the Virginia Regimemnt called it.

Winslow Homer 1892 - touch picture for source

Even after the French and Indian War, George Washington wrote a debtor on 24 June 1767 of a chance to make good in the back country:

" there is a large Field before you—an opening prospect in the back Country for Adventurers—where numbers resort to—& where an enterprizing Man with very little M⟨o⟩ney may lay the foundation of a Noble Estate in the New Settlemts upon Monongahela for himself and posterity."

In one sense, "backcountry" implied that the east coast was the important place. It was the place holding important people holding power.

Not until after the war of independence did any of the colonists start referring to the "backcountry" as frontier.

In fact the authors of "Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement," claim on page 136, "The earliest recorded use of "frontier settlement" was in 1789; "frontier man" 1782; "frontiersman" 1814."

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John Adams used "frontier posts" in 1785, telling the antagonistic British secretary, Marquis of Carmarthen. to follow the Paris 1783 peace treaty to withdraw British garrisons from "Oswegatchy, Oswego, Niagara, Presqu’ Isle, Sandusky, Detroit, Michilimachinac, with others not necessary to be particularly enumerated, and a considerable Territory round each of them, all within the incontestable Limits of the said United States, are Still held by British Garrisons, to the Loss and Injury of the said United States."

There's another word the authors of "Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement," mention on page 137 - Emigrants:

"Before 1790 Americans thought of themselves as emigrants, not immigrants. The word immigrant was Americanism, probably coined in that year [1790]. It entered common usage by 1820."

The Native Americans? What was their word? You know what they thought. But much of what they thought was confusion because of the trade of goods making them dependent.

Compiled by Jim Moyer 11/12/2023

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