CHAPTER V 
IMMIGRATION AND THE SOUTH 
The great and unparalleled exodus of popula 
tions from Europe and their peopling of the 
United States—this remarkable outpouring of 
millions of people from all parts of Europe 
which is designated as immigration—marks a 
great historical event and is pregnant with 
meaning to more than one country and nation. 
The movement, like the ebb and flow of the 
tide, came at intervals, now and then receding 
only to renew its volume later on. The recur 
ring waves broke and dispersed upon our east 
ern shore, crested the mountain barriers, poured 
into the newer agricultural states west of the 
Alleghenies, found their way to the Mississippi 
and across that river to the Great Plains, and 
even trickled as far as the Pacific Ocean. 
Some of the positive economic forces that 
operated prior to 1880 to distribute the older 
immigrant races in particular throughout the 
north central states have been emphasised. We 
have yet to understand what might be called 
the negative forces which also had an influence 
in bringing about this distribution. Among 
them were those which prevented the immigrant 
from going into that large section of the coun 
try south of the Ohio and east of the Mississ- 
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