“The expansion of the South [from 1800 to 1850] across the A…
“The expansion of the South across the Appalachians and the Mississippi River to the fringes of the high plains was one of the great American folk wanderings. Motivated by the longing for fresh and cheap land,… Southerners completed their occupation of a region as large as western Europe. Despite the variety of the land, . . . the settlers of the Southwest had certain broad similarities. They might be farmers large or small, but most farmed or lived by serving the needs of farmers. . . . Not all owned or ever would own slaves, but most accepted slavery as a mode of holding and creating wealth.” — Albert E. Cowdrey, historian, This Land, This South: An Environmental History, 1983 Which of the following was the most significant impact of the South’s expansion described in the excerpt?