ABSTRACT
The desire for expansion into new areas had survived even the most dangerous years of the Revolution. American settlers were advancing into western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Tennessee as the Revolution began, and, in spite of combined British-Indian attacks, settlement continued. While some easterners, particularly from New England, feared that the unrestrained emigration of pioneers might weaken social cohesion, and even the bonds of nationhood, most Americans of the revolutionary generation looked confidently to a rapid advance into the Mississippi Valley.
