Home Rule: Households, Manhood, and National Expansion on the Eighteenth-Century Kentucky Frontier

by Honor Sachs

On America’s western frontier, myths of prosperity concealed the brutal conditions endured by women, slaves, orphans, and the poor. As poverty and unrest took root in eighteenth-century Kentucky, western lawmakers championed ideas about whiteness, manhood, and patriarchal authority to help stabilize a politically fractious frontier. Honor Sachs combines rigorous scholarship with an engaging narrative to examine how conditions in Kentucky facilitated the expansion of rights for white men in ways that would become a model for citizenship in the country as a whole. Endorsed by many prominent western historians, this groundbreaking work is a major contribution to frontier scholarship.

Genres: History, American History

215 pages, Hardcover

First published September 29, 2015

Reviews

[Mark Steininger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting threads in this book, the author does an excellent job peeling away what exists in the sources to tell a really compelling social, family and labor history of late 18th cen Kentucky. The examinations of the breakdown of the traditional social order on the frontier, the impacts of the escalating conflict with the natives, and the general emergence of a frontier proletarian class are all really revealing about early America. There are some really interesting ideas about republicanism and home rule in the 3rd chapter examining the wide spread result of westerns in the 1780s and 90s. Particularly the bit about settlers seeking protection from the Spanish crown had a lot of similarities to the late loyalist migration into lower Canada in the same period. I think there is some interesting scholarship to be done examining the 1790s back country and its relationship to republicanism and democracy.

[Chris Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book about a Kentucky history I had known nothing about. Sure, we know that Lincoln grew up here, and we know a little something about Daniel Boone. We even know about the horse-raising and racing elite. But this book covers the history about Kentucky just as it was becoming a state, and how that elite tried to take over much of the land, creating a poverty-stricken majority with no place they could really call home. The result was a group of men struggling to prove their worth in a country that did not seem to value their labor. It's amazing how close these people were to outright revolt and secession, long before the call for it during the Civil War.

[Ashley Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting history of the early Kentucky frontier and how gender and race roles determined male masculinity and later, political power. Sachs does a wonderful job of looking at the west through the scope of the family hierarchy and relating the power struggle within the home to the power struggle within the western territory. The perception and promise of the west is demonstrated clearly, as well as the startling realities that came along with frontier life. The promise of land, freedom, and family soon became poverty, dependence, and tragedy for the majority of Kentuckians.

A must read for those interested in history of the west and race and gender relations!

[littleorangelamp · Rating 3 out of 5]

well i didn’t really finished it…. but this book is just meh… again i read it for my history class…. a lot of it is just the author repeating his own points over and over and over again… i’m tired…. anyways… i annotate the shit out of this book though it looks so satisfying 🤤

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sachs' work is a telling of the Euro-American settlement and creation of the state of Kentucky, the first state to enter the United States after the American Revolution that had not had previous Euro-American settlement. It tells the story in two new and significant ways. First, this is the story of the "ordinary" people, the poor, women, enslaved, and non-elite men. Second, Sachs centralizes the concept of the household, specifically a white-led, patriarchal, and heterosexual household and how it was the desired, but elusive reality for many settlers. It was this concept, however, that would enable rich and poor white men to find common ground and form the state of Kentucky and bring a sense of stability to the volatile frontier.
Sachs' well-constructed and readable text proceeds roughly chronologically. Each chapter focuses on a different set of sources and part of how the household concept was essential to Kentucky's and its settlers' survival. For example, in one chapter Sachs analyzes records from the Kentucky Overseers of the Poor to demonstrate the widespread existence of poverty in 1790s Kentucky and how the state promoted the patriarchal household by acting as a patriarch to women (and reinforcing their dependent status) and criminalizing men who did not (or could not) fulfill their rightful position in society as the economic supporter of women and children. Elsewhere, Sachs examines how the economic conditions and land laws frequently meant many individuals could not obtain the yeoman household ideal. Instead, many white men and women found themselves as wage laborers or tenants on land owned by (often absent) elites and working alongside enslaved persons of color. Additionally, the state's inability to protect households from Indian attacks put all household members in danger and often left women in roles of leadership as men went off to fight or died in attacks.
White men took to petitioning the government about the government's lack of actions to enable them to create stable households under their rule. When the government failed to act, or did not act to the liking of these white settlers, some began to articulate ideas of becoming part of the European empires that still existed to their west or of becoming their own nation state. Elites began to realize the quagmire this was and began to make concessions, particularly evident in the changes between the 1792 and 1799 state constitutions. With the 1799 constitution, white men across the economic spectrum found common ground in access to voting, court rooms, and state positions, all at the expense of women and persons of color. This compact of race and gender would become almost impenetrable to this day.
Sachs' narrative, then, is not just about Kentucky. Even those elites in the late eighteenth century understood that what happened in Kentucky was about whether the American experiment would survive, not just in the original states, but in newly settled areas. Of course, the solution to preserving the existence and idea of an empire of liberty came at many costs that created the economic, gender, and racial inequalities that still dominate America's political and social existence. Sachs' book also helps us understand how American individualism, supposedly best personified by the frontier, and the instance of the household as central to American's success is not a paradox, but complimentary concepts that give a sense of order in a wilderness that is the economy. Even if one has little interest in Kentucky history or does not have the time to get through this concise work, Sachs' Introduction and Conclusion are not to be missed as they aptly demonstrate her ability to explain and present her argument, its ties to broader scholarship, and how this short period of history connects to the longer trajectory of American history. Home Rule is a smart and exceptional telling of the troubled beginnings of the nation.

[Tim Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, elegantly written.