Treaty of Hard Labour is one of the two treaties signed by the British representativeJohn Stuart with theCherokee tribe. In an effort to resolve concerns of settlers and land speculators following the western boundary established by theRoyal Proclamation of 1763 byKing George III, it was desired to move the boundary farther west to encompass more settlers who were outside of the boundary. The two treaties that resulted to address this issue were the Treaty of Hard Labour and theTreaty of Fort Stanwix. On October 17, 1768, British representativeJohn Stuart signed the Treaty of Hard Labour with theCherokee tribe, relinquishing all Cherokee claims to the property west of theAllegheny Mountains and east of theOhio River, comprising all of present-dayWest Virginia except the extreme southwestern part of the state.[1] The resulting boundary line ran from the confluence of the Ohio andKanawha Rivers, to the headwaters of the Kanawha River, then south toEast Florida.[2]
The following month, the Treaty of Fort Stanwix was signed with theIroquois which resulted in a different boundary line that followed the Ohio River to its confluence with theTennessee River. This conflicted with the line set by the Treaty of Hard Labour by moving the Cherokees' bounds further west. In 1770, theTreaty of Lochaber redrew the line originally set by the Treaty of Hard Labour.