Moses Dameron was born in 1735. In the American Colonies at this time low priced sugar, rum and molasses are being imported, in violation of Britain's Molasses Act, from islands in the West Indies that are not British controlled. In Savannah, Georgia, the first Moravian community is established. Increasing wealth in the American colonies is beginning to change the status of women, and it is being reported that some women are choosing to leave their husbands when they find living together to be incompatible. Colonial newspapers print stories of "runaway wives" and elopements. Elsewhere in the world, the Russian empire under Augustus III seizes control of Poland, and joins in alliance with Persia against the Ottoman Empire.
Moses was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, which is in the geographic center of present day Virginia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. During his life, Moses lived in western Virginia and also in Stokes County, North Carolina. Moses was the primary heir of his father, Lazarus', estate. He inherited all of his father's land and houses, furniture, livestock, rifles, tools, saddle horse, and the presumably indentured apprenticeship of one of his father's shoe-maker students.
Moses Dameron Sr. appears on the list of tax payers in Russell County in 1790, along with his sons Moses Jr, Lazarus and John. Russell County is in the southeastern corner of Virginia, and by the 1770's was situated along a well established Indian trail, called the Warrior Trail, which skirted the eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains and ran from the Potomac River in eastern Virginia to the Pound and Cumberland Gaps in the Kentucky territory. This was the route that most Virginia pioneers took when migrating westward. Up until the time of the American Revolution, in 1775, this was still very much an untamed pioneer territory, and contact with the Indians who populated the area was frequent. These included the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Shawnee. Fledgeling settlements consisting of only a few families would be established, only to be abandoned a short while later after marauding bands of Indians made staying there too unsafe. There was no real presence on this frontier by the Colonial government, so settlers had to defend themselves, or form loosely based local militias to fight the Indians. The advancement from southeastern Virginia into southeastern Kentucky was very much a "two steps forward, one step back" kind of progress. [From http://www.rootsweb.com/~kyjohnso/LawDameronFT.htm]
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=hagerj&id=I46500
