See quotation 1820. This usage is old. The N.E.D. furnishes instances dating about A.D. 1297, 1330, 1380, &c.
1780. Absconded, a Negro Fellow of the Angola country.—Advt., Royal Georgia Gazette, Sept. 28.
1783. Came to my plantation, on Wampree Savannah, a few days ago, a Negroe follow of the Coromantee country.—Advt., South Carolina Gazette, June 3.
1784. There appear to be great natural stores of sulphur and salt in this country.—John Filson, ‘Kentucke,’ p. 31.
1785. The people of Kentucky have in their country a militia of 5,000 fighting men.—Mass. Spy, Oct. 6.
1789. The Kentucke country, which in the Indian language imports bloody, was established into a separate district in 1782.—American Museum, v. 58/2 (Jan.).
1780. The hills near the river are of an indifferent quality, compared with what in this country is esteemed good land.—Mass. Spy, Sept. 17.
1790. Several persons lately from the Ohio country.—Id., Sept. 23.
1793. Notice of a “Post-Road to the Genesee Country.”—Gazette of the U.S., Phila., May 22.
1794. To be sold, the noted Estate, called Johnson Hall, lying in the Mohawk country, state of New York.—Id., April 24.
1796. 61,000 acres, in the Genesee Country, for sale.—Mass. Spy, April 6.
1799. In this year ‘A description of the Settlement of the Genesee Country’ was published in New York.
1820. The word country is used by our people in a manner peculiar to themselves. When we say “this country,” we do not mean North America, nor the United States, nor any state, but to a particular section of country, frequently of indefinite extent. Thus that part of Kentucky which lies south of Green River is called the Green River Country; a part of Illinois, lying upon the Sangamon River, is called the Sangamon Country; the province of Texas is called the Texas Country; and a part of the State of New York used to be called (and may be yet) the Genesee Country.—James Hall, ‘Letters from the West,’ p. 200–1 (London). (Italics in the original.)
1824. They are bound to the Genessee country, Ohio or Michigan country.—New Bedford Mercury, May 28.
1826. Many of these families [in Missouri] … were to me almost the same as the more endeared families of my native country [New England].—T. Flint, ‘Recollections,’ pp. 191–2.
1830. A large tract in what is now called the Susquehanna country was struck off to him.—Mass. Spy, Nov. 24.
1835. If you was to talk that way to a white man in my country, he’d give you first-class hell.—‘Col. Crockett’s Tour,’ p. 45 (Phila.).
1854. Any body who gets up a row in our country … catches particular fits.—H. H. Riley, ‘Puddleford,’ p. 184 (N.Y.).
1855. They were told, as were the Israelites of old, that the Santee country was the land of milk and honey—or rather of molasses, corn in abundance, any number of pigs, and ’coon and ’possum beyond any computation.—W. G. Simms, ‘The Forayers,’ p. 455 (N.Y.).
