Frontier Rebels: The Vigilante Origins of the American Revolution, 1765-1776

Dr. Patrick Spero, Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library

He is the author of Frontier Country: The Politics of War in Early Pennsylvania (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2016) and Frontier Rebels: The Fight for Independence in the American West, 1765-1776 (W.W. Norton & Co., 2019); and co-editor with Michael Zuckerman of The American Revolution Reborn: New Perspectives for the 21st Century (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2016).

“Frontier Rebels: The Vigilante Origins of the American Revolution, 1765-1776”

Lecture: October 5, 2023 – 5:00-6:20pm, Steinberg Auditorium (BH A53)

Dr. Patrick Spero recasts the familiar narrative of the American Revolution, moving the action from the Eastern Seaboard to the treacherous Pennsylvania frontier. He recounts the untold story of the 1765 rebellion of the “Black Boys”: a ragtag group of settler vigilantes who rose in insurgency in reaction to the pan-Indian resistance movement known as "Pontiac's War” and against British attempts to negotiate peace agreements with native nations in the wake of the Seven Years’ War.

Seminar Moderated by Prof. Michel Gobat, University of Pittsburgh Department of History

Seminar: October 6, 2023 –12:00-1:15pm, BH 254Q 

“Botany and Betrayal: Andre Michaux, Thomas Jefferson, and the Kentucky Conspiracy of 1793.”
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Lunch will be provided. Registration required by 9/28.
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