The pursuit of land: Southern tenancy, manly independence and mobility on the agricultural ladder
Journal: John Spoor Broome Library Institutional Repository (California State University)
Year: 2014

For more than a century before 1900, American men migrated across the&#13;\ncontinent in search of land, building farms in one region after another as they sought&#13;\nto achieve the status of independent landowners. The possibility of freehold land&#13;\nownership and the independence that came with it had an enduring appeal for&#13;\nmillions of flesh-and-blood American men who transformed land use patterns across&#13;\nNorth America between 1790 and 1900. Men found farming appealing because