Every settlement in Kentucky was still in jeopardy, and there came moments of dejection, when some of her bravest leaders spoke gloomily of the possibility of the Americans being driven from the land.

But these were merely words such as even strong men utter when sore from fresh disaster.

After the spring of 1779, there was never any real danger that the whites would be forced to abandon Kentucky.
The Land Laws.
The land laws which the Virginia Legislature enacted about this time [Footnote: May, 1779; they did not take effect nor was a land court established until the following fall, when the land office was opened at St.Asaphs, Oct.13th.Isaac Shelby's claim was the first one considered and granted.

He had raised a crop of corn in the country in 1776.] were partly a cause, partly a consequence, of the increased emigration to Kentucky, and of the consequent rise in the value of its wild lands.
Long before the Revolution, shrewd and far-seeing speculators had organized land companies to acquire grants of vast stretches of western territory; but the land only acquired an actual value for private individuals after the incoming of settlers.

In addition to the companies, many private individuals had acquired rights to tracts of land; some, under the royal proclamation, giving bounties to the officers and soldiers in the French war; others by actual payment into the public treasury.