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Patrick Spero
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Frontier Rebels: The Fight for Independence in the American West, 1765-1776 Kindle Edition

by Patrick Spero (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 104 ratings
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The untold story of the “Black Boys,” a rebellion on the American frontier in 1765 that sparked the American Revolution.


In 1763, the Seven Years’ War ended in a spectacular victory for the British. The French army agreed to leave North America, but many Native Americans, fearing that the British Empire would expand onto their lands and conquer them, refused to lay down their weapons. Under the leadership of a shrewd Ottawa warrior named Pontiac, they kept fighting for their freedom, capturing several British forts and devastating many of the westernmost colonial settlements. The British, battered from the costly war, needed to stop the violent attacks on their borderlands. Peace with Pontiac was their only option—if they could convince him to negotiate.


Enter George Croghan, a wily trader-turned-diplomat with close ties to Native Americans. Under the wary eye of the British commander-in-chief, Croghan organized one of the largest peace offerings ever assembled and began a daring voyage into the interior of North America in search of Pontiac.


Meanwhile, a ragtag group of frontiersmen set about stopping this peace deal in its tracks. Furious at the Empire for capitulating to Native groups, whom they considered their sworn enemies, and suspicious of Croghan’s intentions, these colonists turned Native American tactics of warfare on the British Empire. Dressing as Native Americans and smearing their faces in charcoal, these frontiersmen, known as the Black Boys, launched targeted assaults to destroy Croghan’s peace offering before it could be delivered.


The outcome of these interwoven struggles would determine whose independence would prevail on the American frontier—whether freedom would be defined by the British, Native Americans, or colonial settlers.


Drawing on largely forgotten manuscript sources from archives across North America, Patrick Spero recasts the familiar narrative of the American Revolution, moving the action from the Eastern Seaboard to the treacherous western frontier. In spellbinding detail, Frontier Rebels reveals an often-overlooked truth: the West played a crucial role in igniting the flame of American independence.

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  5. Publication date
    September 18, 2018
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Frontier Rebels is an engaging look at a neglected but important aspect of the coming of the Revolution, as well as a tale full of rough frontiersmen, Native American statesmen, shady merchants, and indecisive public officials. "- Journal of the American Revolution
"This well-researched and concisely written monograph takes a timely look back at the history and spirit of dissent." - Library Journal"Frontier Rebels makes for a good read, a lost bit of American history in a greater colonial epic in need of telling." - New York Journal of Books" Spero's thoughtful work is an important contribution to ongoing reassessments of the nature and meaning of the American founding." - Publishers' Weekly"A persuasive effort to locate the origins of the American Revolution not in Boston Harbor but in the dense woodlands of western Pennsylvania." - Kirkus Reviews

Winner - 2018 Philadelphia Athenaeum Literary Award"Frontier Rebels is impeccably researched and cleverly written. Spero's experience and expertise in both academic and public history arenas is apparent in the book's accessibility throughout." - American Historical Review "[Spero's] new book does what the best histories do: It places readers at the scene--whether with grumbling frontiersmen in Cunningham's Tavern who rise in anger as a party of traders walks in, or amid a large gathering of Native leaders at Fort Chartres singing a war song to threaten a British envoy--and makes us wonder what will happen next." - Wall Street Journal "A Gripping story filled with historical insights," - Kevin Kenny, NYU "Spero's lively style makes Frontier Rebels a page turner deserving both a wide readership and a place on undergraduate and graduate reading lists." - Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

"Spero presents convincing support for his thesis that hatred of Indians and desire for their lands played a pivotal role in fomenting the revolution...[Spero delves] deeply into previously underutilized sources...Spero's thoughtful work is an important contribution to ongoing reassessments of the nature and meaning of the American founding."
- Publishers' Weekly (starred review)
"Patrick Spero broadens the horizons on the meaning of American independence, expanding the map from the Sons of Liberty in Boston to the Black Boys on the western frontier. Both groups chose to defy British authority for Jeffersonian reasons, but harbored quite different definitions of 'pursuit of happiness.' Thus a long lost story that Spero tells with understated elegance."
- Joseph J. Ellis, author of American Dialogue"Using lively and persuasive prose, [Spero] resets the common account of the American Revolution, moving it from New England to the perilous Western frontier and reveals that the West played a crucial role in the fight for American independence. Frontier Rebels is an important contribution to the ongoing reassessment of the founding of the U.S."
- Bill Schwab, The Missourian

"Patrick Spero uses a little-known rebellion that erupted in western Pennsylvania a decade before Lexington and Concord to expose prerevolutionary America in all its ambiguity. The result is history in a grain of sand."
- Woody Holton, author of Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution

"Patrick Spero shines a bright light on a forgotten stream of the American Revolution, one that flowed from the Indian-hating frontiers of the west rather than from the liberty-loving cities of the east. That stream has been forgotten not just because elite easterners have written so many of our histories but because it reveals so many unsettling truths about the origins of cherished democratic values. This book is must-reading."
- Daniel K. Richter, author of Before the Revolution

"In lively and compelling prose, Patrick Spero tells the little-known story ofa group of vigilantes who helped to change the course of American history."
- Michael A. McDonnell, author of The Politics of War and Masters of Empire

"Shifting his vision away from eastern ports like Boston and Philadelphia tothe 'dark and bloody ground' of the Pennsylvania frontier, Patrick Spero offers a compelling and important new interpretation of the roots of the American Revolution, one that reveals that the independence of the new United States would come at a terrible cost to North America's Indian peoples."
- Karl Jacoby, author of The Strange Career of William Ellis

"Based on wide reading and archival research, and written in an engaging style, Frontier Rebels provides important and unsettling answers to the questions about the Revolution's origins that it raises."
- Brendan McConville, Boston University, author of The King's Three Faces

"When British general Thomas Gage received news of the Black Boys incident in1765, he instantly smelled a larger rebellion brewing against British rule. We, too, should pay attention. In this dramatic story, Patrick Spero recaptures the significance and gravity of this struggle for independence on the early American frontier."
- David Preston, author of Braddock's Defeat

"Riveting... Written in crystalline prose and populated by a host of colorful characters, this book is ideal for general audiences, undergraduate students, and specialists alike."
- David J. Silverman, author of Thundersticks

About the Author

Patrick Spero is the librarian of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, the oldest learned society in the United States, and the author of Frontier Country: The Politics of War in Early Pennsylvania. He previously taught history at Williams College.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B076M9JL57
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (September 18, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 18, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 5304 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 286 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0393634701
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 104 ratings

About the author

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Patrick Spero

Patrick Spero

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Patrick Spero is the Librarian and Director of the American Philosophical Society Library in Philadelphia. As a scholar of early American history, Dr. Spero specializes in the era of the American Revolution. He has published over a dozen essays and reviews on the topic. His is the author of Frontier Country: The Politics of War in Early Pennsylvania and The American Revolution Reborn: New Perspectives for the Twenty-First Century, an edited anthology also from Penn Press. For more information on Dr. Spero’s work, visit www.patrickspero.com.

A specialist in early American history, Dr. Spero previously taught at Williams College where he served as an assistant professor of History and Leadership Studies and received recognition for his integration of new technology in the classroom. Prior to his position at Williams, Dr. Spero held the position of Historian at the David Library of the Revolution and served on their Board of Trustees. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009 and has held long-term fellowships from the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, the Society of the Cincinnati, the Doris Quinn Foundation, the David Library of the American Revolution, and the American Philosophical Society.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
104 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Aspen Understanding
5.0 out of 5 stars Paradigm Shift in My Understanding of American Revolution
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2019
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 This is a superb book, a true page-turner, and a revelation for almost all Americans. I love how the 1760s history is put in the mouths of real people who lived then and there in Pennsylvania and to the south, west and north of it. The book makes a convincing case that it was the poorer American colonists living to the west, along the Appalachians, whose quest for land yet further west promised by the British to the Native Americans, and whose desire to eliminate violent backlash from the Native Americans armed by British-sanctioned traders, who made the American Revolution inevitable. The British envisioned a North America peacefully divided between Native Americans and colonists without a need for costly British peacekeeping, especially in the wake of the Empire's near-bankruptcy in the wake of fighting off the French. While wealthier colonists in coastal environs could have lived with this compromise (they had other issues with the British), the "Frontier Rebels" refused to live with this compromise and saw the British as their enemies because they were insistent on protecting the Native American lands from colonist encroachment. This entire story is told accurately, with plenty of facts and references to historical documents, and yet with excellent thematic sweep and a novelist's knack for description. Great read!
5 people found this helpful
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lehmad
4.0 out of 5 stars Easy to digest
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2020
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I found this one of the more enjoyable history books to read. Not so much for the content, which I found very interesting, but the writing style. The content started out robust but felt a lost towards the end. It is a difficult era in which to tie together the actions of the black boys and all the politics swirling around. In the end I did not regret my time reading this book.
One person found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2019
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Well written
Well researched
As a history novice, I could follow and understand the politics and how it affected the events of the day from only what a look back thru time revealed . Loved every chapter!
4 people found this helpful
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rckrr
5.0 out of 5 stars Presenting another critical aspect of the American Revolution
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2022
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For those interested in American colonial and American Revolutionary history I strongly recommend reading this book. I have been studying this era in American history for years and never really learned much about the frontier people's influence on the war and post revolution form of government.
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Frontier Rebels
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2019
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Like more and more historically based books that I have read recently, the amount of available information that the story is based upon is thin, forcing the writer to repeat the information multiple times with different words in order to stretch the content. The history of the conflict on the frontier of western PA and their influence on the War for Independence was well supported, but basically dry. How about presenting the subject as an historic novel and filling in and rounding out the characters with some good writing? Good information, but could have been condensed to a 1000 word paper.
3 people found this helpful
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Frank E. Tannery
5.0 out of 5 stars History prior to thevRevolution!
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2019
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I love American history and this book covers the period prior to the Revolution! Good read!
One person found this helpful
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Patrick Purcell
4.0 out of 5 stars Great story of the west
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2019
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Presents a great background that was also very significant in the American Revolution. The information is not generally known but is important to understand the era.
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Drover
5.0 out of 5 stars The (Mostly) unknown history of early Pennsylvania
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2021
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I especially liked the style in which it was written. The author did an outstanding job of capturing the complexities of the societal and political environment at the time.
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