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Kevin T. Barksdale, Kevin Kenny. Peaceable Kingdom Lost: The Paxton Boys and the Destruction of William Penn's Holy Experiment. New York: Oxford University Press. 2009. Pp. viii, 294. $29.95, The American Historical Review, Volume 115, Issue 3, June 2010, Pages 834–835, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.115.3.834
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In the spring of 1701, proprietor William Penn negotiated a treaty with Pennsylvania's Native peoples in the hope that the two sides could “live in true Friendship and Amity as one People” (p. 11). Kevin Kenny chronicles the violent disintegration of Penn's “utopian vision” of Euro-American and Indian peaceful coexistence (p. 2). From the expansion of Euro-American land speculation and encroachment during the opening decades of the eighteenth-century through the patriotically sanctioned Indian killings of the American Revolution, Kenny's five-part work traces the tragic narrative of Indian and white relations in Penn's Woods.
Part one, “False Dawns,” examines the factors undermining Penn's efforts to maintain peaceful colonial relations. Kenny argues that Penn's own land speculation, Ulster Presbyterian encroachments, the inability of the Quaker-controlled Pennsylvania Assembly to extend its political authority into the colony's frontier, and controversial treaties (especially the infamous 1737 Walking Purchase) exacerbated tensions between Pennsylvania's Indians and colonists. As Pennsylvania attempted to remove squatters and improve frontier relations, Indian threats sparked western demands for the improvement of defenses, cessation of Indian negotiations, and greater political representation.
