Creeks and Southerners: Biculturalism on the Early American Frontier

Ethnohistory ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-502
Author(s):  
C. Snyder
Keyword(s):  
American Frontier ◽  
Early American

The American Frontier as State of Nature

World Affairs ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 181 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-41
Author(s):  
Michael J. Faber
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
John Locke ◽  
American Political Development ◽  
American Frontier ◽  
Frederick Jackson Turner ◽  
Early American ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
Law And Justice ◽  
American Society ◽  
In The Beginning

John Locke claims that “in the beginning, all the world was America.” If this were, in fact, the case, then the early American frontier ought to resemble the state of nature that Locke describes. Louis Hartz finds in early American settlement a sort of instinctive Lockeanism, while Frederick Jackson Turner sees in the frontier the primary determining factor in American development. Combining the two suggests that American society may well have developed along Lockean lines, but only if the frontier was in fact at least an approximation of Locke’s state of nature. The frontier does resemble such a state in certain respects, though Locke’s concepts of natural law and justice are conspicuously absent, or at least very weak. This helps to explain why the Americanized version of Locke described by Hartz, rather than a more accurate and complete reading, became the dominant ideological force in early American political development.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document