Abstract
The Road to Black Ned’s Forge is a compelling economic history of the colonial frontier told through the life of Edward Tarr, an enslaved Pennsylvania ironworker who purchased his own freedom and moved to Virginia in 1752. Through a meticulous study of fi nancial and court records, McCleskey gives his “tale of unpaid bills”in the colonial backcountry a coherent narrative drive (58). While the story seems to fl ow effortlessly, McCleskey’s painstaking research is demonstrated by over fi fty pages of appendices for readers who wish to pick up the archival trail.