The French & Indian War, or the Seven Years' War
I have always been drawn to the first world war, the one that began in a remote glen in southwestern Pennsylvania in 1754 and by its end changed the look of the world in 1763. It sets up the American War of Independence, the decades of war between Britain and France -- in many ways, the modern age itself. For twenty years I attended as a vendor the annual seminar of the Braddock Road Preservation Association, and it educated and entertained me with some of the best scholars in the field. On this page I will offer new books and classics, dvds and audiobooks, and any other worthy items of the 18th century that relate to the "wilderness war."
William Trent and the West
William Trent and the West
His life covered a wide range of early developments on the frontier. He was in an official capacity at the important councils at Logstown in 1752 and Easton in 1757. He was with General John Forbes, Colonel Bouquet, and Major Washington as they blazed their way through the Western Pennsylvania wilderness enroute to chasing the French from the Forks of the Ohio. He was in on the founding of Pittsburgh as “The Gateway to the West.” He partnered with George Croghan and the journals of his trips with Andrew Montour into the Ohio Country are some of the most important documents we have on the early history of the westward movement.Statesman, entrepreneur, adventurer, and just plain nomad are but just a few of the ways to sum up the life and times of this 18th century figure. All in all, William Trent was one of the major figures in early colonial history. His career was full of pulsing romances, forest diplomacy, and colonial politics. Yet Sewell Slick’s clear and readable style of Trent’s biography, while painted against his graphic presentation of this exciting Eastern Frontier History, will only pique your interest to read further about this most thrilling period of early American history. You will read this book again and again, wishing that you too could go on just one more adventure with Trent westward across the wide Alleghenies to the Forks of the Ohio and into the Ohio country. Chapters in this Trent biography include his Ancestry and Early Activities, In Service to Virginia, Financial Troubles, Pennsylvania and Royal Service, Assistant Deputy Indian Agent and Trader at Fort Pitt 1759-161, Life Around Fort Pitt 1762-63, The Seige of Fort Pitt 1763, and Trader’s Losses and Land Speculation. William Trent, indeed, was greatly involved in the expansion of the Pennsylvania Frontier westward into the Ohio Country. Reading about his presence at many of the key events of the day, along with his fondness for travel west into the hinterland, will help to give you just one more piece of the puzzle in trying to understand the time period we’ve grown to know and love, the 18th century on the Eastern Frontier.