Westsylvania was a proposed state of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

located in what is now

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...

, southwestern Pennsylvania, and small parts of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

, and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

. First proposed early in the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

, Westsylvania would have been the fourteenth state in the newly formed United States, had it been recognized.

Background

In the years before the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

(1775–1783), jurisdiction of the region west of the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...

around

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

and along the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of ...

had been disputed between the British colonies of

and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. The Mason-Dixon line, which officially established the border between Pennsylvania and

, would have also settled the Virginia-Pennsylvania boundary dispute, but the surveying of the final miles of the Mason-Dixon line was abandoned in 1767 and would not be completed until 1784. In the early 1770s it was therefore unclear whether Pittsburgh and environs were in Pennsylvania or Virginia. Both colonies proceeded as if they had the better claim to the area. Virginia administered the region as the District of West Augusta, while in Pennsylvania it was considered a part of Westmoreland County. Complicating this border dispute were the vast land claims of the Ohio Company of Virginia and the Indiana Land Company along the Ohio River. The two companies combined forces in 1769 to create the Grand Ohio Company with the intention of creating a colony known as Vandalia, which would have had similar borders to Westsylvania had it been recognized. The outbreak of the

effectively brought an end to the efforts to establish Vandalia.

Efforts at recognition

Many settlers in the region believed that the governments of Virginia and Pennsylvania were too far removed from the west and were apathetic to western concerns. Inspired by the ideals of the American Revolution, in the summer of 1776 settlers in the region proclaimed their independence from Pennsylvania and Virginia by petitioning the

Second Continental Congress The Second Continental Congress was a late-18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolutionary War. The Congress was creating a new country it first named "United Colonies" and in 1 ...

to recognize Westsylvania as the fourteenth state. In "The Memorial of the Inhabitants of the Country, West of the Allegheny Mountains," the petitioners reviewed the dispute between Pennsylvania and Virginia, which they believed would "in all Probability terminate in a Civil War". They also informed the Congress that "Land Jobbers" were facilitating unlawful encroachment on

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

land, which would produce "a bloody, ruinous & destructive War with the Indians...." Hoping to create order out of this chaos, the petitioners therefore asked that:

the Said Country be constituted declared & acknowledged a separate, distinct, and independent Province & Government by the Title and under the name of — 'the Province & Government of ''Westsylvania'',' be empowered and enabled to form such Laws & Regulations & such a System of Polity & Government as is best adapted & most agreeable to the peculiar Necessities, local Circumstances & Situation thereof & its inhabitants invested with every other power, Right, Privilege & Immunity, vested, or to be vested in the other American Colonies, be considered as a Sister Colony & the fourteenth Province of the American Confederacy....

States with western land claims were reluctant to recognize the independence of frontier regions, however, and so Congress chose to ignore the petition. In an apparent effort to strengthen its political control of the area, in November 1776 Virginia reorganized the District of West Augusta into three counties: Ohio County, Monongalia County, and Yohogania County. Pennsylvania and Virginia finally settled the boundary dispute in 1780. Settlement of the boundary dispute sparked a renewal of the Westsylvania movement among Virginians who were outraged to find themselves now living in Pennsylvania. Contributing to this separatist sentiment were those frontiersmen who believed that the national government was not doing enough to protect them from Native American attacks on the western frontier in the final years of the Revolutionary War. In 1782, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, a

lawyer and strong supporter of the national government, convinced the Pennsylvania Assembly to declare that agitation for a separate state was

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

.Marder, ''Hugh Henry Brackenridge'', 35. This made promotion of Westsylvania subject to the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

.Sosin, ''Revolutionary Frontier'', 163. Pennsylvania also sent secret agents, such as the Reverend James Finley, to work against the Westsylvania movement. According to historian Jack Sosin, "Finley's efforts, the threat that the settlers' land might be sold, and the cool reaction to the proposed new state by Congress finally quieted the Westerners."

References

Sources

*Abernethy, Thomas Perkins. ''Western Lands and the American Revolution''. Originally published 1937. New York: Russell & Russell, 1959. *Cranmer, Gibson Lamb. ''History of the Upper Ohio Valley'', volume 1. Madison, Wisconsin: Brant & Fuller, 1891. Accessed vi
Google Book Search
*Frederic, Harold and William C. Frederick, III. ''The Westsylvania Pioneers, 1774–1776.'' Pennsylvania: Mechling Bookbindery, 1991. . *Marder, Daniel. ''Hugh Henry Brackenridge''. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1967. *Slaughter, Thomas P. ''The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution''. Oxford University Press, 1986. . *Sosin, Jack M. ''The Revolutionary Frontier, 1763–1783''. New York: Holt, 1967.

External links

Radio piece that reports on Westsylvania in the evolution of West Virginia's history and identity
{{coord, 38.6, -80.8, type:adm1st, display=title Former regions and territories of the United States History of Pittsburgh History of the Thirteen Colonies Pre-statehood history of Kentucky Pre-statehood history of West Virginia Proposed states and territories of the United States

Background

Efforts at recognition

See also

References

Sources

External links