Migration has been an important force in the development of America. Ever since the English settled along the banks of the James River in 1607, subsequent generations have looked beyond the boundaries of their settlements to the unsettled regions of the west. These people realized that the advancement of their civilization was dependent upon a continuous supply of mobile humans who were willing to pack their belongings and their families, to relocate to another part of the continent, to transplant their culture, and to resume life in a new environment. Since the American nation was founded and developed on the basis of this westward orientation and on a belief that God had predestined the American people to fill the nation to its natural boundaries, one can easily conclude that migration has been, and continues to be to this day, a distinct characteristic of America and its people, so much so as to earn the population the title of a "People in motion."
In examining the geographical and residential status of early 19th-century Americans, historians have discovered "persistence rates" (or the percentage of those individuals who remain in one location from one census enumeration to the next) of approximately 30% to 50%. This meant that well over one-half of the population found in one location at a given time could not be found in that same location ten years later, thereby indicating a highly mobile population. A good example of this movement can be seen in the changing distribution of populations in the western regions:
1800 - 10% of all Americans resided west of the Appalachian Mountains, primarily in Tennessee, Kentucky, and the area of West Virginia.
1824 - 30% of all Americans resided in the region between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River, with increased movement further west into unsettled territories.
Likewise, the rapid growth of state and territorial populations reveal the great movement of the American people into the opening Western lands:
Boone Cumberland
1800
1810
1820
1830
1840
Ohio
45,000
239,581
581,434
938,903
1.4 mil
Indiana
5,000
24,520
147,178
343,600
600,000
Illinois
--
12,282
55,211
157,445
476,000
Michigan
--
4,700
--
--
212,000
The frontier in modern times can be defined as "a geographic region adjacent to the unsettled portions of the continent in which a low man-land ratio and unusually abundant, unexploited natural resources provide an opportunity for social and economic improvement to the non- or small-propertied individual."(Billington, America's Frontier Heritage, p.25). But to the pioneers of the early 19th century, the "frontier" was more commonly defined as the border between the settled and unsettled regions.
Explanation:
