Making the heartland quilt

"In Making the Heartland Quilt: A Geographical History of Settlement and Migration in Early-Nineteenth-Century Illinois, Douglas K. Meyer reconstructs the settlement patterns of thirty-three immigrant groups and confirms the emergence of discrete culture regions and regional way stations.". "Meyer argues that midcontinental Illinois symbolizes a historic test-strip of the diverse population origins that unfolded during the Great Migration. He demonstrates that Upland Southerners, New Englanders, Midlanders-Midwesterners, and foreigners formed culturally mixed regional way stations that interconnected in expanding continental urban-transport systems and culture regions.". "Basing his research on the 1850 United States manuscript schedules, Meyer dissects the geographical configurations of twenty-three native and ten foreign-born adult male immigrant groups who peopled Illinois."--BOOK JACKET.