The American Staffordshire Terrier is a young race, officially recognised in 1936, but his roots go back at least a century , to when the selection started certainly with a unique direction.
These terrier were called with several names; reminding the vastness of the North American territory, it is understandable that a new breed of dog could be related with several terms. The more fashion names were Yankee terrier, pit dog, pit bull terrier, American pit bull dog, American bull terrier. Zone to zone it was called pit (the fighting arena ) pointing to the feature of "fighting dogs", or, mainly in the middle of the country, some geographic nouns (Yankee, American) were given  with the will to raise them to new local race. In America the fighting wasn’t forbidden, so this dual aspect lasts for long: on one hand, keens on the sporting meetings were giving emphasis to the character evaluation in selection phase; on the other, common people was trying to promote the race as life companion dog, to guard and company, caring beauty aspect in the attempt to fix the type. This was the beginning of theoretical and practical separation of the American Staffordshire, driving in our century to the distinction between American Staffordshire and Pit Bull.
The American Staffordshire was born from imported subjects "bull-and-terrier" like, the same dogs which in the United Kingdom generate the bull terrier, normal and toy sized, or the Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
The dichotomy between the two American bloodlines of the Stafford was marked in 1898: on a meeting in Kalamazoo, C. Bennet registered the race named American Pit Bull Terrier at the United Kennel Club (UKC). The UKC is one of the actual dog-loving corporations all over United States which recognises known and local breeds; it is apart from the FCI, which in United States founded the American Kennel Club (AKC).
That’s why at international level, this breed of Staffordshire is recognised with the name of American Staffordshire Terrier. This to underline that till the pit bull terrier will not definitely separate at morphological level from his relative, so to be involved between the races recognised by the American Kennel club, the international corporation (FCI) will not be able to ever consider the officially declare of this breed. First post-war years marked a good diffusion for this breed of dogs. A new race club was founded in 1921, at Clay Center in Kansas, promoted by F.L. Dunable. This association, the American Bull Terrier Club, gave the basis for the creation of the new breed, promoting balanced character and drafting the standard which is actually the base of the current American Staffordshire Bull. This club activity turned out fundamental for the future development of the race, his recognition, nor less for the promotion of these dogs far away from the indomitable fighting dogs appeal, which the supporters of the pit bull were continuing to goad.

A new race was born to gain America and the whole world.

First steps of the birth of a new race are necessarily a bureaucratic path which concern the creation of a race club recognised by the national dog-loving corporation and, in second instance, the opening of a Kennel Club Book, registering the info concerning the subjects of this rising race. Rules of the American Kennel Club are to recognise a new race only if the Kennel Club Book traces at least five hundred subjects certified on the national territory.
For the American Staffordshire Terrier, the recognition by AKC took long for reasons outside of the number of subjects, they were depending upon a precise name definition. On one hand the central bureau took listening to the Bull Terrier Club of America, which refused the idea of naming a new race as American bull terrier; on the other hand the name Yankee terrier suggested by the magazine "Dog World" was placed on hold by the managers of the American Bull Terrier Club.
In 1935 the English Kennel Club signed up the Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Since the American race was a descent of the English one, the name of Staffordshire terrier was formerly proposed and accepted. This change was born in parallel to the foundation of a new official race club, the Staffordshire Terrier Club of America (STCA), on March 23rd, 1936, which received it the first July of the same year. The first dog member of the Kennel Club Book was registered in the August of 1936.
Between the first American Staffordshire Terrier there were also subjects which had been before registered at the United Kennel club (UKC) or other associations as local as pit bull terrier.
First exposure appearance of the AKC is August 30th, 1936, with male Charles J. Doyle Doylès Shiner, signed up in  Illinois Northbook Kennel Club Show. Charles Doyle became one of the first breeders of the American Staffordshire.
In these beginning years we must notice the will of the managers of the Staffordshire Terrier club of America to make a selection, to remove the dog bet fighting passionate. Despite this line towards beauty competitions and obedience tests, confirmed by the publication of two precious yearbook in 1940 and 1942, until the fifty years there were dogs both in exposure and in fighting.
Coming out on the scene of post-war new breeders drove on people’s mind a dog's modern vision, particularly this kind of dogs, for the way its attitude could be used for.
Staffordshire Terrier club of America long chairman William Mt.. Whitaker (1948-1964) decided the expulsion of all those partners, and relative dogs, that worked in the circuits of fighting or that provided dogs for such a use. This settled position is fundamental in the correct interpretation of the American Staffordshire and took the race to a further and brief separation from the pit bull and all those who were reading these dogs under the bloody animals' profile.
Current American Staffordshire Terrier draw their bloodline from the best subjects who were on the shows in the post-WW2. The affixes who traced the first important blood lines were "Ruffian", "X-Pert", "Crusader", "Tacoma" and "Harwyn". In 1946 is born the first big American Staffordshire terrier in the history of the race: Ch. X-Pert Brindle Biff. Son of X-Pert Black Ace II, X-Pert Brindle Biff became American Champion, and afterwards father of thirteen headlined subjects. X-Pert Biff was owned by Clifford and Alberta Ormsby but breaded by Henry Schuhmann which used the affix "X-Pert" too. Compared to the father, subject a bit heavy with integral ears perfectly held, X-Pert Brindle Biff was showing characters which were forwarding him to the modern subjects; like its father, he had white head and front legs on a striped body. In the same time Clayton S. Harriman begun a selection which drove to many great reproducers in the twentieth after war. Harriman took the affix "Ruffian". “Ruffian" dogs are beginners of the greatest modern bloodlines from which are born the "Gallant", the "White rock", the "Rounder", the "Tonkawa", the "Patton", the "Diamond", the "Evergreen" and the "Chicago". But history of the American Staffordshire terrier was traced by other "Ruffian", not in bloodline with this ancestor. Some main lines in the race go back to Ch. Ruffian Walkaway, subject alive in the first years of the post-war; his male line gets back to Ch. Martin' s Tony and above to Martin' s Tramp. From Ch. Ruffian Walkaway, three generations of directed line drive to Ruffian Chango of Har-Wyn, which, even though was not proclaimed champ, produced a series of optimums subject at the end of the fifty years.
A happy distant co-operate between Clayton Harriman ("Ruffian"), Detroit (Michigan) and Peggy Harper ("of Har-Wyn"), San Antonio (Texas), produced a series of subjects which mostly affected the race in the thirty-year post-war period, recognisable by give names which take both the affixes. Peggy Harper had already started breeding back in 1947 and in turning of a decade he succeeded to create a stock farm in the biggest of the history of the race, regularly lodging around sixty adult dogs; this affix till today holds the record of victories in show. The seventy years register the regional creation of many clubs, which started promoting shows, match to linked play, meetings between keens. In 1974 the American Kennel Club expressed the will to add the word "American" to race name, cause in the country many Staffordshire Bull Terrier were imported from Great Britain; in consequence the AKC officially recognised the English race in 1975. The intent of such a change was to avoid any misunderstanding with the local race.
The Staffordshire Terrier became the American Staffordshire Terrier.
The official race association, Staffordshire Terrier of America (STCA) held the old name of club till the October 1988, when it changed in American Staffordshire Terrier club (ASTC).
In the meantime, the growing interest for the race and the increase of registered births to the American Kennel club took to greater participation in exposure and to a greater "majors" number. For example, in 1987, 184 members attended to the National Speciality organised in Chicago, with 63 presence in Best of Breed Class. Great reproducers turned the page in the race in the seventy years; not much about morphological improvements, but a small step by step to uniformity in the average of the born subject. Dogs with the atypical expression of the big Staffordshire Bull Terrier, basses on the limbs and wide chest, pronounced plentiful lip and too much masseters, were more rarely seen; also those too weak subjects, with too long snout, weak in skeleton, with gripped chest, normally high beyond the limit of the size, started being swerved by the breeders. In the sixty and seventy years the birth recorded at the AKC do not refer the exact amount of the presence in the USA territory. The tendency to record in dissident associations was still diffused in the population, due principally to two reasons: first a logistic order, owed to the convenience to find in any small centre a dog-loving delegation which conformed puppies pedigree; second, the tradition between common people to define such dogs as pit bull, becoming forgotten the true meaning of such a term, evaluating these dogs as reliable companions for children. The same hypothetical map of bloodlines cannot be drawn starting from one or more stumps, as in case of most canine races; many breeders became passionate of the American Staffordshire Terrier from pit bull registered at the AKC with other names , therefore tracing the ancestors is impossible. This is one of the indexes of the health of the race, whose opening to 360° of lines and families allows an easy out-cross in those cases where the narrow consanguinity reproduce unwelcome effects.
Talk about the recent champs (not everyone distinguishing in reproductive phase!) silently appears reductive, like enumerate all the silent breeders which took this race ahead. The broadness of the United States territory amplifies the spread of bloodlines which, for the limited number of members, can instead be encrypted until the seventy years. This is the United States situation, but the American Staffordshire terrier is today well breeded all over the world, outside of Great Britain. First exports goes back to the half of seventy years and started to involve the competent organs of the FCI too. In Europe the race took feet in Germany and Holland, and puppies produced by the passionate of these countries were spread in the continent. The FCI has recognised the American Staffordshire Terrier in 1985 and on July 9 of the same year the FCI publishes the official race standard, adopting that the one of the American Kennel club, due to the fact AKC is the only United States pet-dog corporation associated to. Since this moment the growth of the AST has been unceasing, so big to impress American themselves on Nineties World Championships, where in Vienna 1996 there was the remarkable enrolment of 229 participants.

The main male lines of the AST (with a few timeline date of birth)