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West Virginia: Difference between revisions
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In the 1670s, during the [[Beaver Wars]], the powerful [[Iroquois]], five allied nations based in present-day New York and Pennsylvania, drove out other Native American tribes from the region to reserve the upper Ohio Valley as a hunting ground. [[Siouan language]] tribes, such as the [[Moneton]], had previously been among the earliest recorded in the area. Conflicts with European settlers resulted in various displaced Native tribes settling in West Virginia, where they were known as ''Mingo'', meaning "remote affiliates of the Iroquois Confederacy".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jennings |first1=Francis |title=Review of ''A Country Between: The Upper Ohio Valley and Its Peoples, 1724-1774'' by Michael N. McConnell. |journal=The Journal of American History |date=December 1993 |volume=80 |issue=3 |pages=1056 |doi=10.2307/2080440|jstor=2080440 |issn = 0021-8723 }}</ref> | In the 1670s, during the [[Beaver Wars]], the powerful [[Iroquois]], five allied nations based in present-day New York and Pennsylvania, drove out other Native American tribes from the region to reserve the upper Ohio Valley as a hunting ground. [[Siouan language]] tribes, such as the [[Moneton]], had previously been among the earliest recorded in the area. Conflicts with European settlers resulted in various displaced Native tribes settling in West Virginia, where they were known as ''Mingo'', meaning "remote affiliates of the Iroquois Confederacy".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jennings |first1=Francis |title=Review of ''A Country Between: The Upper Ohio Valley and Its Peoples, 1724-1774'' by Michael N. McConnell. |journal=The Journal of American History |date=December 1993 |volume=80 |issue=3 |pages=1056 |doi=10.2307/2080440|jstor=2080440 |issn = 0021-8723 }}</ref> | ||
The area now identified as West Virginia was contested territory among Anglo-Americans as well, with the colonies of [[Pennsylvania]] and [[Virginia]] claiming territorial rights under their colonial charters to this area before the | The area now identified as West Virginia was contested territory among Anglo-Americans as well, with the colonies of [[Pennsylvania]] and [[Virginia]] claiming territorial rights under their colonial charters to this area before the American Revolutionary War. Some speculative land companies, such as the [[Vandalia Company]],<ref>[[Charles Henry Ambler]], "A History of West Virginia" pg. 104</ref> the [[Ohio Company]] and the [[Indiana Company]], tried but failed to legitimize their claims to land in parts of West Virginia and present-day Kentucky. This rivalry resulted in some settlers petitioning the Continental Congress to create a new territory called [[Westsylvania]]. With the federal settlement of the [[Yohogania County, Virginia|Pennsylvania and Virginia border dispute]], creating [[Kentucky County, Virginia]], Kentuckians "were satisfied [...] and the inhabitants of a large part of West Virginia were grateful."<ref>Charles H. Ambler. ''A History of West Virginia'', pp. 132–138</ref> | ||
The Crown considered the area of West Virginia part of the British [[Virginia Colony]] from 1607 to 1776. The United States considered this area the western part of the state of [[Virginia]] (commonly called ''Trans-Allegheny Virginia'') from 1776 to 1863, before West Virginia's formation. Its residents were discontented for years with their position in Virginia, as the government was dominated by the [[Planter class|planter elite]] of the [[Tidewater (region)|Tidewater]] and [[Piedmont region of Virginia|Piedmont]] areas. The legislature had electoral malapportionment, based on the counting of slaves toward regional populations, and western white residents were underrepresented in the state legislature. More subsistence and yeoman farmers lived in the west, and they were generally less supportive of slavery, although many counties were divided on their support. Residents of that area became more sharply divided after the planter elite of eastern Virginia voted to secede from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] during the Civil War. | The Crown considered the area of West Virginia part of the British [[Virginia Colony]] from 1607 to 1776. The United States considered this area the western part of the state of [[Virginia]] (commonly called ''Trans-Allegheny Virginia'') from 1776 to 1863, before West Virginia's formation. Its residents were discontented for years with their position in Virginia, as the government was dominated by the [[Planter class|planter elite]] of the [[Tidewater (region)|Tidewater]] and [[Piedmont region of Virginia|Piedmont]] areas. The legislature had electoral malapportionment, based on the counting of slaves toward regional populations, and western white residents were underrepresented in the state legislature. More subsistence and yeoman farmers lived in the west, and they were generally less supportive of slavery, although many counties were divided on their support. Residents of that area became more sharply divided after the planter elite of eastern Virginia voted to secede from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] during the Civil War. | ||
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[[Christopher Gist]], a surveyor in the employ of the first [[Ohio Company]], which was composed chiefly of Virginians, explored the country along the [[Ohio River]] north of the mouth of the [[Kanawha River]] between 1751 and 1752. The company sought to have a 14th colony established with the name "[[Vandalia (colony)|Vandalia]]". Many settlers crossed the mountains after 1750, though they were hindered by Native American resistance. Few Native Americans lived permanently within the state's present limits, but the region was a common hunting ground, crossed by many trails. During the [[French and Indian War]] (the North American front of the Seven Years' War in Europe),Native allies of the French nearly destroyed the scattered British settlements.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=563}} | [[Christopher Gist]], a surveyor in the employ of the first [[Ohio Company]], which was composed chiefly of Virginians, explored the country along the [[Ohio River]] north of the mouth of the [[Kanawha River]] between 1751 and 1752. The company sought to have a 14th colony established with the name "[[Vandalia (colony)|Vandalia]]". Many settlers crossed the mountains after 1750, though they were hindered by Native American resistance. Few Native Americans lived permanently within the state's present limits, but the region was a common hunting ground, crossed by many trails. During the [[French and Indian War]] (the North American front of the Seven Years' War in Europe),Native allies of the French nearly destroyed the scattered British settlements.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=563}} | ||
Shortly before the | Shortly before the American Revolutionary War, in 1774 Crown Governor of Virginia [[John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore]], led a force over the mountains. A body of militia under [[Andrew Lewis (soldier)|then-Colonel Andrew Lewis]] dealt the [[Shawnee Natives]], under [[Cornstalk (Shawnee leader)|Hokoleskwa]] (or "Cornstalk"), a crushing blow during the [[Battle of Point Pleasant]] at the junction of the Kanawha and the Ohio rivers.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=563}} At the Treaty of Camp Charlotte concluding [[Dunmore's War]], Cornstalk agreed to recognize the Ohio River as the new boundary with the "[[Long Knives]]". But by 1776 the Shawnee returned to war, joining the [[Chickamauga Cherokee|Chickamauga]], a band of [[Cherokee]] known for the area where they lived.{{Citation needed|date=March 2020}} Native American attacks on settlers continued until after the American Revolutionary War. During the war, the settlers in western Virginia were generally active [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Whigs]]; many served in the [[Continental Army]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=563}} [[Claypool's Rebellion]] of 1780–1781, in which a group of men refused to pay taxes to the Continental Army, showed war-weariness in what became West Virginia. | ||
===Trans-Allegheny Virginia=== | ===Trans-Allegheny Virginia=== | ||