[Augustine23559]

I don’t buy Tom’s response about Northerners being, on average, smarter because the early settlers had to deal with the elements. I would be interested in reading some accounts of how dull-witted settlers died because they made some fatal mistake in preparing for a harsh winter. (Perhaps they never made the trek in the first place.) Settlers in southern Appalachia, including my own forbearers, had their own problems to deal with, and it’s entirely possible that many died for lack of ability to meet these challenges. I have, however, heard the theory of the ‘broken wagon wheel’, i.e., that the terrain was so rugged that it acted as a kind of catchment basin for those unable to get any further. But I’m sure that settlers up and down the north-south axis met similar challenges, and some may merely have said ‘why go any further when where we are is good enough?’. After all, not all settlement patterns were contests to see how far you could get! As an aside, the friendliest people I’ve ever met are Southerners; people in central and southern Appalachia, quite honestly, are not all that friendly. Strangely enough, the rudest Americans I’ve ever met are in upstate New York; the New York City natives I’ve met are really quite warm and friendly by comparison.

User Detail :  

Name : Augustine23559, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 40, City : Columbia, State : SC, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,