Thwaites Introduction to Dunmore's War

The following is the introduction to Thwaites and Kellogg, 1905 "Documentary History of Dunmore's War. This introduction provides a good explanation of the origins of the war, and its significance for settlement of the Virginia Frontier.

INTRODUCTION

Most histories of trans-Alleghany pioneering ascribe the origin of the Dunmore War of 1774 to an isolated set of occurrences upon the upper Ohio, happening in the spring of that year. But its roots went far deeper than this. It was the culmination of a long series of mutual grievances and outrages between the frontiersmen of Virginia and Pennsylvania and the savages of the Ohio Valley. The crushing of New France by Great Britain brought but partial rest to the English borderers. The pioneers of the British colonies relentlessly pushed westward; aboriginal hunting grounds were converted first into their own game walks and then into farms, and in the process the tribesmen were often harshly treated. Savage resentment and reprisal were to be expected—blazing into the swift flame of Pontiac's conspiracy (1763), and only half smothered by the severity of Bouquet's retaliatory expedition. The frontier was the line of contact for two irreconcilable races; real peace could not be had, until one or the other was vanquished beyond question.

The policy of the English government had been to limit settlement by the Alleghanies