CHAPTER XI.
IN THE CURRENT OF THE REVOLUTION--THE SOUTHERN BACKWOODSMEN OVERWHELM THE CHEROKEES, 1776.
The great western drift of our people began almost at the moment when they became Americans, and ceased to be merely British colonists.

They crossed the great divide which sundered the springs of the seaboard rivers from the sources of the western waters about the time that American citizens first publicly acted as American freemen, knit together by common ties, and with interests no longer akin to those of the mother country.

The movement which was to make the future nation a continental power was begun immediately after the hitherto separate colonies had taken the first step towards solidification.

While the communities of the sea-coast were yet in a fever heat from the uprising against the stamp tax, the first explorers were toiling painfully to Kentucky, and the first settlers were building their palisaded hamlets on the banks of the Watauga.

The year that saw the first Continental Congress saw also the short, grim tragedy of Lord Dunmore's war.