Valley of Virginia, 1760s

Valley of Virginia, 1760s. . , Cooperation and Conflict , European settlers peacefully coexisted despite differences in language, customs, and religion. German Lutherans, Irish Presbyterians, English Quakers, and other groups intermingled on the Virginia frontier while maintaining their unique identities. However, it was the interactions between European and non-European peoples that defined the frontier experience. European settlers took land and game that Indians needed to survive, and prospects of peaceful relations were soon shattered. Some free Blacks found greater opportunities on the frontier, but the experience of enslaved people on the frontier could be just as dehumanizing as life on an eastern Virginia tobacco plantation. Small numbers of enslaved people ran away and joined with American Indians, intermarrying into their societies. But some Indian tribes, such as the Cherokee, later adopted the use of enslaved African Americans from European Americans., On the Virginia Frontier , The Virginia frontier was a borderland where people of different cultures, perspectives, and motives came into contact. Distinct cultural and ethnic identities persisted on the frontier, but people did not live their lives in isolation. Accommodation, mingling, exchange, and coexistence were always present, as were violence, exploitation, and marginalization., Frontier Cultures , The society that developed on the Virginia frontier was influenced by the diversity of its people. England's language and culture, as well as its political, social, and economic systems, shaped the American colonies. Non-English Europeans adapted to this prevailing culture, but maintained distinctive traditions in foodways, domestic architecture, and customs. Indians embraced European tools and implements. Europeans adopted crops domesticated by Indians, and many European hunters and traders wore Indian clothing such as moccasins, breechcloth, and leggings. Europeans found the unfamiliar quality of African cultures unsettling and tried to suppress them, but the foodways, music, and storytelling traditions introduced from Africa survived and profoundly shaped American culture., [Caption:] , Hunting shirts, bucktails in men's hats, and elements of American Indian dress indicated that someone was from the frontier. Frontier culture inspired many of the United States' earliest depictions of itself, becoming markers of American identity to outsiders. Virginia Rifleman. Harlan Crow Library, Dallas, TX.