The back country is the interior.
1755. I herewith send you a small map of the back country, which, though imperfect and roughly drawn, for want of proper instruments, may give you a better knowledge of the parts designated, than you have hitherto had an opportunity of acquiring.—Geo. Washington to Robert Orme, April 2: ‘Writings,’ i. 145. (Ed. 1889.)
1787. The back country people have killed three hundred Indians, and a party under the command of colonel Alexander, consisting of three hundred men, is gone out; so that a general war is thought to be unavoidable.—American Museum, ii. 1 (Chronicle).
1792. The United States claimed the back country as the property of the whole union, which should be appropriated to the use of the federal government.—G. Imlay, ‘Topographical Description,’ p. 15 (Lond.).
1796. “A new Ballet Dance, called the Back Countryman, or, the New Settlers,” advertised in the Gazette of the U.S., Nov. 19 (Phila.).
1806. In some parts of our back country, the orchards have been unusually productive.—The Repertory, Boston, Nov. 21.
1824. We have no back country; here is no thoroughfare for travellers in quest of markets.—Nantucket Inquirer, Jan. 12.
1845. The boatman who saw his bewilderment, and knew by his dialect and dress that he was a back-countryman, came to his relief.—W. G. Simms, ‘The Wigwam and the Cabin,’ p. 22 (Lond.).
