In reviewing my notes, I'm reminded of the importance of land and its role in our Revolution. The following is taken from a book I heartily recommend for both its narration and illustration. For those of almost any age, this book is an ideal introduction to and overview of the history of the American struggle for liberty. Anne The Revolution American Heritage, p 74-5 Land for the taking up As long as anyone could remember, men in England's colonies had waited for the day when the French would be driven out of America, making available those limitless lands that stretched beyond the Alleghenies. In Europe, no matter where a man hd lived,land had been tightly held for generations, and what might be bought was at a price few could afford. The deep-seated hunger for property had driven many a family over thousands of perilous miles to America, where even the poorest might eventually claim their own piece of ground. Cheap land in the back country was the way to wealth and prestige, and after 1763 its supply seemed limited only by the distant horizon. All a man needed was courage, enterprise, and a strong back; and between 1765 and 1768 narly 30,000 of them headed west, pouring over the Appalachians' crest in search of the future. Caption, p 74: In 1763 George II's decree that Americans were not to settle beyond the headwaters of rivers emptying into the Atlantic met with angry protest. Then land-hungry pioneers simply brushed aside the edict and headed for the forbidden ground, following Daniel Boone's trail through Cumberland Gap.... Caption, p 75: An ever-increasing number of emigrants moved along the "Great Philadelphia Wagon Road" and other trails leading west, filling the Appalachian slopes and turning arable wilds into prosperous farms.... Back to main narrative: When John Finlay and his followers plunged into the "Dark and Bloody Ground" of modern Kentucky, the news created greater excitement among the people of Carolina, one historian noted, than the report of Columbus' discovery had aroused at the Court of Spain. In Finlay's footsteps came Daniel Boone, and behind him, waves of new settlers from Maryland and Virginia. >From the Watauga River in North Carolina to the upper Ohio, the woodman's axe was hewing a new kind of society where opportunity, as well as land, was there for all who would seek it. "Scarcely a shoemaker, a joiner, or silversmith but quits his trade," Governor John Wentworth of New Hampshire wrote in 1768, "as soon as he can get able to buy a little tract of land and build a cottage in the wilderness." Every colony's economy rested on an agrarian base, and eight out of ten men made their living from the soil. Even those whose livelihood came from other pursuits made part-time use of the soil, or speculated in the "wild lands" of the West. Before the Revolution only five cities numbered over 8,000 people, and these centers contained less than five per cent of the entire population. Land was wealth, but it was more, as Hector St. John de Crevecoeur observed. Land "has established all our rights; on it is founded our rank, our freedom, our power as citizens." Transcribed by Anne Sennish from The Revolution, by the Editors of American Heritage. New York: 1958, American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc. Editor in Charge: Richard M. Ketchum. Narrative by Bruce Lancaster. Introduction by Bruce Catton.