Matthew C. Ward, Breaking the Back country: The Seven Years' War in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1754-1765. Pittsburgh PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003. Maps, photos, 329 pps., $34.95.
It is impossible to compile an accurate list of crimes committed and punishments given during the provincial period because of incomplete records. There are instances where the record contains no more than the entry, "The King" v. the name of the defendant. In quite a number of cases it is not recorded whether the indictment was returned as a true bill or marked ignoramus. Some entries contain the name of the defendant, the fact that the indictment was returned a true bill, but make no mention of the disposition of the case. Many defendants were released on recognizance to appear at a later session, but a number of those released do not appear again in the records.
The present collection of proverbs began as an incidental by-product of a study on the life and times of Lewis the Robber, central Pennsylvania's folk-hero. Examination of newspapers and other materials published in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, before 1820 revealed a wealth of proverbial material in dated occurrences prior to the starting date of Archer Taylor and Bartlett J. Whiting's Dictionary of American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, 1820-80.
“Pressure of the times.” “Scarcity of money.” “Scarcity of work.” “Persistence of creditors.” “Family sickness.” “Low wages.” “Unemployment.” “Bought high and had to sell low.” Are these familiar phrases heard in the last couple of years? Yes. But they are also verbatim phrases found in petitions for insolvency to the Cumberland County courts from 1750-1860 by debtors who found themselves arrested on a judgment for debt.
Most of us are familiar with contemporary descriptions of the near-death experience: the bright light, the tunnel, and the feeling of being "out of the body." Those who have had the near death experience also describe being taken to the other side, only to be told that they had died before their time and that they must go back.
In the absence of systematically collected enumeration data (such as those collected for a census), researchers interested in reconstructing regional demographic histories are left with few choices. This is especially true for those wishing to examine demographic trends before the first federal census of 1790.
Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766. (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2000). xxiii, 862, illustrated, maps, index. Hardcover $40.00 (ISBN 0-375-40642- 5); Paperback (New York: Vintage Books, 2001) $20.00 (ISBN 0-375- 70636-4)