The Winning of the West, Volume 3

After the Revolution, the fledgling United States turned its eyes west, where the Ohio Valley stretched like an open promise. Between 1784 and 1787 a torrent of pioneers poured into the frontier, staking farms and building tiny communities far from the coast. Yet the new settlements were fragile, linked to the distant federal government by only a thin thread of authority.

The settlers soon found themselves caught between powerful Indian confederacies defending their lands and the lingering designs of Britain and Spain, who supplied arms and encouragement to resist American advance. Ambitious leaders in the backwoods floated the idea of separate states, most famously the short‑lived Commonwealth of Franklin, while some even plotted alliances with European officials. Despite the turbulence, the period laid the groundwork for a federal presence that would eventually bind the trans‑Allegheny lands to the Union.