Peopling the New Land

Abstract

THE movement of people to the American frontier as a geographical place proceeded at different rates and in different directions throughout the nineteenth century. Information on this migration is available at local, regional and national levels, both for specific points in time and for longer periods, but little effort has yet been made to weave together the various sources to provide either a general framework of analysis for ascertaining the dimensions of population growth or specific case studies for testing major propositions about western settlement.