From 'Peaceable Kingdom' to 'Wild West': Violence and Crime on the Early American Frontier.

弗雷德里克·杰克逊·特纳（Frederick Jackson Turner）等历史学家在19世纪末著述时，已经认识到边疆在塑造独特的美国社会方面所起的作用，这种社会既不同于其欧洲祖先，也不同于北美其他社会。所有历史学家对边疆社会的定义的核心是边疆居民诉诸暴力的倾向。然而，虽然历史学家普遍承认边境暴力事件的频率，但他们很少试图了解这种暴力的原因或性质。事实上，许多前沿研究背后隐含的假设是，前沿社会就其本质而言是暴力的。然而，最近的研究，特别是对宾夕法尼亚早期的研究，揭示了美国的边疆并不一定是暴力的，而是可以在拓荒者之间以及拓荒者与印第安人之间培养一种和谐的关系。最近关于早期美国边疆的研究大多集中在特定的地方，或最区域性的研究上，很少有广泛的比较研究。少数对边境进行过更广泛研究的历史学家将他们对暴力的解释主要根植于边境定居者的种族。特别是，历史学家将边境暴力的普遍存在解释为苏格兰和阿尔斯特苏格兰定居者在边境的存在。他们认为，这些移民把暴力传统带到了大西洋彼岸，尽管这种地方性暴力传统几乎不可能在不列颠群岛找到。这个项目将分析为什么暴力和混乱在边境的某些地区变得如此普遍，而在其他地区却没有，并将定义边境暴力的程度、性质和原因。这个项目的一个首要前提是，边境暴力和混乱的蔓延不仅仅是由边境社会的内在性质决定的，而是由每个地区独特的社会和文化力量的结合决定的。事实上，边疆社会在每个地区都有明显的不同，每个地区都有不同的暴力和犯罪模式。这项研究还将审查这种暴力的结果，特别是暴力在多大程度上产生个人主义或促进社区凝聚力。该项目将考察研究四个独立的“前沿”：18世纪上半叶宾夕法尼亚州东南部早期；约1740-1800年产于北卡罗来纳州西部；约1760-1810年产于宾夕法尼亚州西部，约1770-1820年产于加拿大北部。通过研究存在不同边境暴力模式的四个地区，将有可能研究产生暴力的力量的影响，如定居者与美洲土著的关系的性质、司法和政治权威的效力、缺席土地所有权的影响、枪支所有权的程度以及对土地和贸易的经济竞争。该项目的中心内容是对早期加拿大和美国边境的比较研究。通过研究18世纪末和19世纪初美国边疆的几个相关地区，将增加进一步的比较因素。对边境暴力的原因和性质进行比较研究，将增强我们对暴力是如何、何时以及为何在北美边境发生的理解，从而加深我们对早期美国社会中暴力的作用和目的的理解。通过对暴力的起因和结果提供一个新的视角，并通过解释暴力是如何在边境发生的，这个项目将为接近和理解美国早期历史的一些核心问题提供新的途径，比如印第安人与白人的关系、战争、土地的获得，也许最重要的是，边疆在塑造美国身份方面的作用。

Historians from Frederick Jackson Turner, writing at the end of the nineteenth century, have recognised the role of the frontier in shaping a distinctive American society, different both from its European forebears and from other societies in North America. Central to all historians' definitions of frontier society is the propensity of frontier residents to resort to violence. Yet while historians have universally acknowledged the frequency of frontier violence they have made little attempt to understand the causes or nature of this violence. Indeed, underlying many frontier studies is the implicit assumption that frontier societies were, by their very nature, violent. However, recent work, on early Pennsylvania in particular, has revealed that the American frontier did not have to be violent but could foster a harmonious relationship both between the settlers themselves and between settlers and Native Americans. Most of the recent work on the early American frontier has focused on particular local, or at the most regional, studies and there has been little broad comparative work. The few historians who have made broader studies of the frontier have rooted their explanations of violence largely in the ethnicity of frontier settlers. In particular, historians have explained the ubiquity of frontier violence by the presence of Scottish and Ulster Scots settlers on the frontier. They have assumed that such settlers brought traditions of violence with them across the Atlantic, although such traditions of endemic violence are all but impossible to locate in the British Isles.This project will analyse why violence and disorder became so prevalent in certain parts of the frontier but not in others, and will define the extent, nature and causes of frontier violence. An overarching premise of this project is that the spread of violence and disorder on the frontier was not determined solely by the intrinsic nature of a frontier society, but rather by a combination of social and cultural forces which were unique to each region. Indeed frontier society was markedly different in each region, and each region had different patterns of violence and crime. The study will also examine the results of that violence, and in particular the extent to which violence generated individualism or fostered community cohesion.The project will examine study four separate 'frontiers': early south-eastern Pennsylvania in the first half of the eighteenth century; western North Carolina from ca. 1740-1800; western Pennsylvania from ca. 1760-1810 and Upper Canada from ca. 1770-1820. By studying four regions where there were different patterns of frontier violence, it will be possible to study the influence of forces which generated violence such as the nature of the settlers' relationship with Native Americans, the effectiveness of judicial and political authority, the impact of absentee land-ownership, the extent of gun-ownership, and economic competition for land and trade. The central element of this project is a comparative study between the frontier of early Canada and that of the United States. A further comparative element will be added by studying several related regions of the United States' frontier in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.A comparative study of the causes and nature of violence on the frontier will enhance our understanding of how, when and why violence occurred all along the North American frontier, and thus deepen our understanding of the role and purposes of violence in early American society. By providing a new perspective on the causes and results of violence and by explaining how violence operated on the frontier, this project will provide new ways of approaching and understanding some of the central issues of early American history such as Indian-white relations, warfare, and the acquisition of land, and , perhaps most importanly, the role of the frontier in shaping American identity.