der for they fit
into Grenville's plan for colonial growth. The general flow of Virginia
migration after 1740 was southward along the Piedmont into the
Carolinas or southwestward through the Valley of Virginia, not north
and northwest to the Forks of the Ohio. In 1768 and 1770 by the
treaties of Fort Stanwix (N.Y.) and Fort Lochaber (S.C.) the Six
Nations and Cherokee Indians gave up their claims to the Kentucky
country as far west as the Tennessee River. The Virginian occupation,
led by John Donelson and Daniel Boone, quickly moved in through the
Cumberland Gap. Not until the Quebec Act of 1774 thwarted their claims
to land north of the Ohio did Virginians react strongly against British
land policy.

To defend the new territories and maintain the old, Grenville proposed
retaining 10,000 British troops in America, stationing them mainly in
Halifax, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and the West Indies from which
they could be moved to trouble spots as needed. The British had learned
from the unpredictable response by the colonies during the French and
Indian War and the nearly disastrous Pontiac Rebellion in early 1763
that the colonies would not, or could not, provide cooperatively for
their own defense even in the face of clear danger. There were too many
inter-colonial rivalries and there was stubborn adherence to the
English tradition that local militia was not to serve outside its own
jurisdiction or for long periods of time. Moreover, the western lands
were primarily an imperial responsibility. Thus, the decision was made
to station British troops in America.[11]

[11] There are those who suggest the troops were sent to America
on a pretext. The ministry, knowing it could not reduce the army
to peacetime size in face of French threats, also knew there was
strong English resentment against "a standing army" in England.
The colonial condition offered an excuse for retaining the men in
arms See Bernhard Knollenberg, Origin of the American Revolution,
1759-1766 (New York, 1960), chapters 5-9.

In April 1765 parliament passed the Quartering Act, similar to one in
England, requiring colonies, if requested, to provide quarters in
barracks, taverns, inns, or empty private buildings. Although the act
did not apply directly to them, Virginians sided with the hard-hit New
Yorkers who bitterly denounced it as another form of taxation without
representation. So strong was the reaction