In last season’s “Outlander” (the television series), Jamie and Claire briefly mentioned settling near or on a line established as the dividing line between the westernmost settlers and Native Americans. The show never presented its viewers with more information about this “line in the sand” or in this case the mountains. As I had recently researched the Donelson Line of 1763, I could answer my husband’s question about this bit of frontier history.
Writing of the Boone family’s life along the Yadkin River of far western North Carolina, I came to realize that Daniel Boone had moved his family further and further west before his first foray into Caintuck, the early name for Kentucky. Their last move in NC brought them right up to the Proclamation Line.
“. . . the Governor’s Proclamation Line of 1763, called by some the Donelson Line. The colonial governors had proclaimed, after a period of conflict with the Indians, that settlers were not to move west of this line into Indian territory. The border line followed closely on the Blue Ridge Mountains.”
In 1767 and early 1768, Daniel and his brother Squire had crossed the Donelson Line and proceeded into Caintuck on a long hunt. As Daniel told his family,
“Well, first you have to cross the Blue Ridge, took us right near a week as we hunted along the way. We followed the rivers when possible, but often camped in rock shelters, high on the hillsides. The Cherokee also travel along the rivers, and we felt it might be right smart to avoid their company on this hunt. We left some of our furs and hides hidden in various dark shelter recesses as we traveled farther northwest. Next came the Appalachian Mountains. Seems we found mountains no matter which way we turned. Squire, Will, and me, well, we hunted and kept to ourselves. Didn’t see another white soul the entire trip. Us being west of the Proclamation Line, we didn’t want to stir up no trouble. We saw a few Indians, mostly from a distance, so we took care not to be noticed, so to speak.”
Daniel’s party of long hunters was not the only white incursion into the forbidden territory. Daniel would soon learn that his friend John Finley, along with others, had even established a trading post west of the line along the Ohio River.
By the late 1760s, men all across the frontier already recognized the riches that lay beyond the Donelson Line. From Pennsylvania to Georgia, men began moving west looking to establish new settlements. The Donelson Line was never protected, fenced, or even patrolled – it was simply a line on a map. Ignored by men and women alike who dreamed of new places they had never seen and the abundance of the land they could find past the governors’ line.
Excerpts/Quotes are from Caintuck Lies Within My Soul. Read more about early westward expansion in my new book which tells, in novel form, the story of Jemima Boone.