The Term "West"
The frontier line--the outer line of settlement—moved steadily westward from the 1630s to the 1880s (with occasional movements north into Maine and Vermont, south into Florida, and east from California into Nevada). The "West" was always the area beyond that boundary. Most often, however, the term "American West" is used for the area west of the Mississippi River during the 19th century. Thus, the Midwest and parts of the American South, though no longer considered "western," have a frontier heritage along with the modern western states.
Read more about this topic: American Frontier
Famous quotes containing the words term and/or west:
“Why did you give no hint that night
That quickly after the morrow’s dawn,
And calmly, as if indifferent quite,
You would close your term here, up and be gone”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“To have a place full of delights and nothing but delights, which one does not have to explain and defend to people who have ideas unsympathetic to one, it is to economize the forces which keep one from ending like the wisteria, from committing the unpardonable sin of doing things with difficulty.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)