"Deftly weaving together numerous interpretive strands, Craig Friend's first-rate study explains how the passage from 'Kentucke' to 'Kentucky' turned the first trans-Appalachian frontier from the leading edge of America's New West to the border of its Old South. This book is both an essential and an elegant read."-Stephan Aron, author of Kentucky From Daniel Boone to Henry Clay<BR><BR>American Culture has long celebrated the heroism framed by Kentucky's frontier wars. Spanning the period from the 1720's when Ohio River valley Indians returned to their homeland to the American defeat of the British and their Indian allies in the War of 1812, Kentucke's Frontiers examines the political, military, religious, and public memory narratives of early Kentucky. Craig Thompson Friend explains how frontier terror framed that heroism, undermining the egalitarian promise of Kentucke and transforming a trans-Appalachian region into an Old South state. From county courts and the state legislature to church tribunals and villages stores, patriarchy triumphed over racial and genered equality, creating political and economic opportunity for white men by denying it for all others. Even in remembering their frontier past, Kentuckians abandoned the egalitarianism of frontier life and elevated white males to privileged places in Kentucky history and memory.