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They Went West… and North… and South! Migration Out of New England By the time of the 1850 census, nearly half of all heads of household lived in states not adjacent to their states of birth. By 1860, nearly half of all living New Englanders had migrated. Who heard the call of the unknown? Why did they leave? How did they get there? Throughout the Revolution, soldiers carried stories of new lands back to their families. In 1781, movement out of the populated areas to the frontier began, picking up momentum with each decade. The greatest migrations were to Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio. Although most migration was from east to west, some settlers went south. Often, an individual or small group went ahead to select a tract. Most settlers moved with family groups or emigrant associations. Once settled, they often encouraged those back home to join them on the frontier, known as “chain migration.” Following Indian trails, post roads, rivers, and mountains, they followed the lure of the land as the frontier moved steadily westward. Character and Customs of New Englanders It has been said that anytime a Congregational church is found west of New England, Yankee roots lie beneath. New Englanders carried other characteristics and customs with them. Known for thrift and enterprise Church and school of utmost importance Participatory local government, with annual town meeting Towns built around town common or square Church with steeple Customary white houses with green blinds, set gable-end to the street Lush gardens in front yards Motivating Factors in Westward Migration First settlers were often restless spirits who disliked the restraint of the law, church, and school. Some built temporary homes, stayed for a short time, and then moved on to the new frontier. But other factors also persuaded New Englanders to venture westward, including weather (e.g., summer of 1816), crowding in coastal cities and towns, and the opportunity of acquiring cheap, fertile land. Legislation and Treaties Affecting Migration Below are a few significant treaties and legislative actions affecting westward migration. Land Ordinance of 1785 1785 Fort McIntosh Peace 1787 Northwest Ordinance 1789 Treaty of Fort Harmar 1795 Treaty of Greenville 1800 Division of Northwest Territory, creating Indiana Territory 1802 Enabling Act 1804 Land Act 1805 Michigan Territory created 1812 Louisiana Territory renamed Missouri Territory 1820 Public Land Act; Missouri Compromise 1836 Wisconsin Territory created 1853 Washington Territory created 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act 1862 Homestead Act The Bureau of Land Management offers an excellent Homesteading Timeline on its website at http://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/wo/Law_Enforcement/nlcs/education__interpretation/homestead _graphics0.Par.57736.File.dat/Expanded%20Homestead%20Timeline%20final.pdf. The Southeast Vermont Community Learning Collaborative has created an excellent “Timeline of Westward Migration and U.S. Expansion” on it website, The Flow of History at http://www.flowofhistory.org/themes/ movement_settlement/westerntimeline.php. Worldatlas.com has a detailed timeline for each state. Select a state on the national map at http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/us.htm; then, click on “Timeline.” Indian Paths, Post Roads, Canals, and Major Routes Old Indian paths offered an established network for building post roads for delivery of mail and other government business. Many post roads became major migration routes as settlers pushed the frontier westward. See Abraham Bradley’s 1796 Map of the United States (memory.loc.gov). Some emigrants travelled by way of Canada and the northern lakes. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 triggered a flood of new emigrants. Below are several significant migration routes. Boston Post Road Chicago Road Connecticut Path & Greenwood Trail Crown Point Road Erie Canal Forbes Road Genesee Road Gist’s Trace Great Trail Great Warrior’s Path Illinois Trail Iroquois Trail King’s Highway Kittanning Path Lake Trail Maumee Portage Trail National Road Nemacolin’s Path (Braddock’s Road) Northwest Turnpike Senaca Trail Wabash Trail Wisconsin Trail New England Nativity Reflected in 1850 Census Analysis of New England nativity in non-New England states by 1850 yields some interesting results, particularly with respect to the number of people who migrated from Vermont. Conn. Maine Mass. N.H. R.I. Vermont TOTAL California Illinois Indiana Iowa Michigan Missouri New Jersey New York Ohio Pennsylvania South Carolina Wisconsin Minnesota Terr. N. Mexico Terr. Oregon Terr. Utah Terr. 1317 6899 2485 1090 6751 742 2105 66,101 22,855 9266 228 4125 48 10 72 193 2700 3693 976 713 1117 311 287 4509 3314 1157 68 3252 365 12 129 151 4760 9230 2678 1251 8167 1103 1494 55,773 18,763 7330 407 6285 92 24 187 350 904 4288 886 580 2744 304 301 14,519 4821 1775 39 2520 47 6 44 123 861 1051 438 256 1031 124 264 13,129 1959 1946 97 690 3 1 20 21 1194 11,381 3813 1645 11,113 630 280 52,599 14,320 4532 37 10,157 100 8 111 232 11,736 36,542 48,278 5,535 30,923 36,458 4,731 206,630 211,361 26,006 876 26,882 655 61 716 1,070 TOTAL 124,287 22,754 117,894 33,901 21,891 112,152 432,879 New York and New Jersey: Permanent Settlement or Stopping Point? Migration into New York began with settlement of Gravesend on Long Island in 1640 by a group from Massachusetts. In the years following the Revolutionary War, bounty land attracted New Englanders in significant numbers. Many settled on the western shores of Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. New Englanders began migrating to New Jersey in 1661, when 30 families from the New Haven Colony set out by boat and settled in what is now Newark. Settlement in the South New England settlement in the south began in 1696 with establishment of the Dorchester Colony in South Carolina. A sizeable group of Nantucket Quakers settled in Guilford and Onslow Counties in North Carolina in the 1770s. Between 1795 and 1817, settlers from Connecticut, Vermont, and Massachusetts settled in Mobile, Alabama. Northward to Lower Canada Following the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755, many New England planters migrated to lower Canada. Fishermen from Cape Cod and Nantucket migrated to Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, as early as 1757. In 1783, some 8,000 Loyalists sought refuge in Canada in an area known as the “Eastern Townships.” Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the Western Reserve Migration to Pennsylvania began on a large scale before the Revolution, but on a far greater scale afterward. In 1753, the Susquehanna Company was formed by Connecticut settlers to develop the Wyoming Valley. Connecticut ceded its right to the land in 1786, in exchange for what later became the Western Reserve. Connecticut ceded its right to the Western Reserve in 1800. In 1786, the town of Marietta, Ohio, was laid out and settled by a group from Massachusetts known as the Ohio Land Company. By 1787, the tide of emigration along the shores of Lake Erie and the Muskingum River began over several routes, including the Mohawk Valley, the Old Braddock Road, and the Ohio River. In 1797, the Blockhouse Road opened up across the Allegheny Mountains, a major migration route from New England. By the 1840s, Ohio ceased to be the “far west.” The Old Northwest Territory The Old Northwest Territory included land west of Pennsylvania and northwest of the Ohio River: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and northeastern part of Minnesota. Indiana settlers were more likely to be from Kentucky, Tennessee, or the coastal south, but some of those were New England natives. Northern Illinois became a Yankee stronghold, while southern Illinois was populated by settlers mostly from Virginia, Kentucky, and the Carolinas. Michigan became the first western state to adopt the town meeting, a strong indicator of Yankee influence. The Black Hawk War of 1832 directed migration to land north of Illinois into Wisconsin. Counties in the southwest corner of the state were settled primarily by southern emigrants, while the eastern districts filled with New Englanders and New Yorkers. Settlement in the Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri Territories Before being set off as the Iowa Territory in 1838, Iowa was part of Louisiana, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, and Wisconsin Territories. By 1844, New England missionaries were making concerted efforts to bring Yankee civilization to the west. Minnesota became a territory in 1849. The territory’s first newspaper, the Minnesota Pioneer, gained attention on the eastern seaboard, attracting many New Englanders. By far, the greater numbers were from Maine, followed by Vermont and New Hampshire. Missouri and neighboring Kansas struggled with the issue of slavery. As Kansas approached statehood, New Englanders took an active role in opposing slavery there. The New England Emigrant Aid Company was formed (among others) and transplanted some 2,000 anti-slavery residents to the territory. Crossing the Rocky Mountains Many New Englanders migrated with Brigham Young in the 1840s, ultimately settling in the Utah Territory. The Oregon Territory, established in 1848, included Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Wyoming and Montana. New England influence was felt much earlier. Most Yankee settlements were concentrated along the rivers west of the Cascades. When California was admitted as a state in 1850, it was already home to several thousand Yankees from every New England state. In 1849, New Englanders caught Gold Rush Fever, setting sail for Cape Horn and Panama, on their way to San Francisco. Some returned, but many became permanent settlers. Recommended Sources for Further Study Adams, James Truslow and Kenneth T. Jackson, eds. Atlas of American History. 2nd revised ed. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1985. Bradley, Abraham Jr. A Map of the United States Exhibiting Post Roads & Distances: the First Sheet Comprehending the Nine Northern States, with Parts of Virginia and the Territory North of Ohio; digital image, Library of Congress (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html : accessed 1 April 2015). Dollarhide, William. Map Guide to American Migration Routes, 1735-1815. Bountiful, Utah: Heritage Quest, 1997. Eldridge, Carrie. An Atlas of Northern Trails Westward from New England. Huntington, WV: CDM Printing, Inc., 2000. Getz, Lynne Marie. “Partners in Motion: Gender, Migration, and Reform in Antebellum Ohio and Kansas.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. Vol. 27, No. 2 (2006): 102-135. Hamilton, P.A. “Some Southern Yankees.” American Historical Magazine. Vol. 3 (Oct. 1898); digital images, Google Books (www.books.google.com : accessed 30 January 2015). Hotchkin, Rev. James H. A History of the Purchase and Settlement of Western New York, and of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Presbyterian Church in that Section. New York: M.W. Dodd, 1848; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org : accessed 30 January 2015). Holbrook, Stewart H. The Yankee Exodus: An Account of Migration from New England. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1950. Hotchkin, Rev. James H. A History of the Purchase and Settlement of Western New York, and of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Presbyterian Church in that Section. New York: M.W. Dodd, 1848; digital images, The Internet Archive (www.archive.org : accessed 4 April 2015). Howe, Henry. Historical Collections of Ohio. 3 vols. Columbus: Henry How & Son, 1891; Internet Archive (https://archive.org : accessed 30 January 2015). Jones, Pomroy. Annals and Recollections of Oneida County. Rome, NY: the author, 1851; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org : accessed 30 January 2015). Mathews, Lois Kimball. The Expansion of New England: The Spread of New England Settlement and Institutions to the Mississippi River 1620-1865. New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1762. Rohrer, S. Scott. Wandering Souls: Protestant Migrations in America. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010. Turner, O. History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham’s Purchase, and Morris’ Reserve; Embracing the Counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, Most of Wayne and Allegany, and Parts of Orleans, Genesee and Wyoming, to Which Is Added, a Supplement, or Extension of the Pioneer History of Monroe County. Rochester: Erastus Darrow, publisher, 1851; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org : accessed 30 January 2015). Waitley, Douglas. Roads of Destiny: The Trails that Shaped a Nation. Washington: R.B. Luce, 1970. Winkle, Kenneth. The Politics of Community: Migration and Politics in Antebellum Ohio. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988).