r ^s" 1 ■^ 5-3 351 E53 opy 1 GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY BY FREDERICK V. EMERSON ReVHINTED from the PaOCEEDIVOS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, Volume VIII I I ■\ Ck. K GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY By Frederick V. Emerson It might seem as superfluous to begin with a defini- tion of geography, as to give one of history or algebra, for instance, except for the fact that secondary-school geography, with which we are all familiar, has a scope and content somewhat different from university geogra- phy, a much greater difference, I imagine, than exists for example between secondary-school history or algebra and the university phases of these subjects. The university concept of geography will perhaps be made clearer by a brief account of its development. The acceptance of the theory of evolution may be said to mark the beginning of modem geography. Prev- iously geography had been very largely synonymous with exploration and its concomitant map-making, but with an understanding of evolution, the influence of what is sometimes called ''physical environment" began to be more and more appreciated. Travelers, of whom Hum- boldt is a type, had accumulated considerable data so that the responses of people to earth factors could be studied. The outcome was Ritter's definition of geography as the study of the earth as the home of man, which is today the essential definition of university geography. Naturally different emphases are placed on various phases of geography in different countries. Geography is to be found in practically every German university but usually in close connection with some other department such as geology, anthropology, or applied economics. In England geography until recently has been almost sy- 290 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION nonymous with travel and exploration, a response to the widespread colonial interests of the nation. A refleo- tion of this is seen in the pages of the Journal of the Royal Geographic Society which abounds with travelers' tales, some pertinent, but containing many details of hunts, camps, and what they had for meals — much good material but requiring thorough sifting. Recently the school of geography at Oxford has published some good, clean-cut work. For graduation theses in this school students take a small area, describe the surface, soil, and climate and then trace the influence of these factors from the earliest recorded time to the present. However logi- cal, direct thinking along geographic lines is perhaps best developed in France. A splendid series of monographs has appeared, covering among other regions the Plain of Flanders, Brittany, the Loire Valley, and the Paris Basin. Each monograph includes a thorough treatment of the geology, surface, soils, flora, and climate, and then a history of the region with special reference to geo- graphic factors. In the United States, almost without exception geog- raphy has developed in university departments of geol- ogy. The work of American geologists on the land forms so well shown in the West and on glaciation vir- tually created a new line of investigations which are de- scribed by the term physiography or geo-morphology, and from the physiographers the ranks of the geogra- phers are largely recruited. The trend of American geog- raphy during the last twelve years is well shown in the programs of the Association of American Geographers. The earlier programs consisted largely of physiographic discussions, such as problems of steam erosion, glacial studies, and meteorological investigations. For the last four or five years a rapidly increasing proportion of these programs has been given to papers which treat largely of anthropogeographic problems and investiga- tions. GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES 291 Professor Davis of Harvard, who is a leader both of the technical physiography and of the newer humanized geography has proposed an elaborate system by which to arrange the content of geography. He would separate the subject into two coordinate divisions; one the inor- ganic, now commonly known as physical geography, and the other the organic responses for which he has coined the term ontography. Thus in a geographic treatment of, say the lower Mississippi, he would treat under one head the behavior of the river and under the other head treat the various influences of the river upon human af- fairs. In short, geography, according to this concept is largely a study of relations rather than a study of dis- tribution and location. These factors are, of course, fundamental in geography but they are likewise import- ant in many other subjects. The distribution of votes as showing political parties, for example, is clearly a his- torical topic. But if there is made a comparison of votes in, say, the mountains and the limestone lowlands of Ten- nessee, the geographic factors of soil and topography must enter into the problem. This somewhat lengthy introduction has seemed ad- visable in order clearly to set forth the general working idea of college and university geography. I emphasize the content of university geography rather than second- ary-school geography since the college and university concept of a subject usually in considerable measure be- comes stamped on the secondary-school phase. It seems to me that geography is most intimately connected with history from the economic standpoint of history. Economic and industrial conditions usually have close connection with earth factors and they are, of course, important factors in history. On the other hand, geographic factors are not without influence on the social and political phases of history, but the relations are not so obvious as in the case of economic factors. Take a 292 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION few cases in point. The line of twenty inches of annual rainfall passes through central Kansas and Nebraska. Less than twenty inches means precarious wheat and corn, more means good crops. Moreover, the rainfall in the subarid belt and, in fact, the humid belt of this region appears to occur in cycles. In general about once in seven years there are a few years of drought. It cannot be a mere coincidence that populism had its notable de- velopment in Kansas during the dry years of this pre- cipitation cycle, although it should not be forgotten that, superadded to the dry years, there was the general eco- nomic depression of that time. I fancy that few watch the crop weather much more closely than the adminis- tration leaders at Washington for the average voter will punish the party in power for any unfavorable crop weather. The influence of the weather on the up-state vote in New York is a matter known to every one inter- ested in the politics of that state. Somewhat along another line, it seems to me that a close study of the Mormon church in Utah, at least on its secular side, would show interesting responses to an arid climate. For example, the Mormon hierarchy has main- tained a firm hold on its adherents and I believe this con- trol is in part at least a response to the necessary irriga- tion in an arid region. Irrigation makes for small farms and a concentrated rural population, and such a concen- tration lends itself to effective control by a central body. It was Hilgard, I believe, who suggested that the ancient high civilization in southwestern Asia arose from the cooperation necessary in irrigating that arid region. Again, when the present history of settlement in the arid West is written, a common mistaken response to geographic conditions must be noted. Eastern settlers are accustomed to select a somewhat-heavy soil like the limestone soils of the Blue Grass region or the silts and clays of the wheat belts, soils of proved productiveness GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES 293 in the humid regions. Eastern settlers in the arid West have chosen such soils only to meet with failure in many- cases because these soils absorb and hold moisture very poorly. Here the light, sandy soils, which are less pro- ductive in humid regions, are the productive type be- cause of their excellent water-holding capacity. This recalls a mistaken geographic response so often noted in the settlement of prairies in the Middle West. The east- ern settlers almost invariably chose woodland which here was found largely in the rougher country along the streams. The pioneer's belief was that the prairies, which did not produce timber, could not be productive for crop purposes. It is perhaps safe to say that a study of the votes cast in almost any state will show some geographic dif- ferentiation of parties especially if the state has strongly contrasted districts. Schaper's study, ^'Sectionalism and Representation in South Carolina," ^ is a fine illustration. You will recall that he traces the sharp differences be- tween the Coastal Plain, or ''Low Country," and the Piedmont, or "High Country," differences in customs, ideas, origins, farm tenure, and politics, and that with the invention of the cotton gin and the spread of upland cotton the two sections became more homogeneous politi- cally. Phillips, in his study, "Georgia and State Rights," ^ brings out essentially the same facts for Geor- gia, and Ambler, in his ' ' Cleavage Between Eastern and Western Virginia," has set forth the sharp differences between the strongly contrasted physiographic districts of that state. Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, in fact all the southern states, include strongly contrasted regions, and very of- ten different, and often antagonistic, ideas and interests have developed in these areas of contrasted soil, topog- 1 Printed in Amer. Hist. Assn., Eeport, 1900, I, 237-463. 2 Ibid., 1901, II. 294 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION raphy, and industries. Even Louisiana, which outside the state is commonly believed to be somewhat uniform, has two well-marked regions, the northern hills and the southern plains which are often politically antagonistic. Illinois, a typical prairie state, which seems to the casual observer somewhat uniform, nevertheless has two well- recognized divisions, based mainly on soils and topog- raphy. Northern Illinois is glaciated, and its soils are very productive. Southern Illinois, locally termed ** Egypt," is less productive and more eroded. North- em Illinois was accessible to northern settlement from the Great Lakes route, while the southern part of the state was settled largely from the border southern states. The well-known ante-bellum political differences between these sections has a marked geographic background. The geographic distribution of slavery, both general and local, presents extremely interesting and compara- tively unworked problems. The institution was estab- lished along the Atlantic littoral both north and south and by the time of the Revolution it was practically extinct in the North and growing in the South because it paid better in the South. In the South it became predominant in certain localities and was all but unknown in oth- ers. The wave of dense slave population extended from the Coastal Plain to the Piedmont and later from the Piedmont to the Black Belt. In the Cotton South the spread was conditioned by favorable soils. Of course, the development was somewhat sporadic; here for some reason there were few slaves in a fertile region and there in a rather infertile district the census reports show a somewhat dense slave population. Creed, nativity, mar- kets, and the local economic organization were important factors in the distribution of slaves. Local studies of slavery should be very interesting since on the whole the institution was sensitive to geographic influences. In the Mississippi Basin the influences of the rivers GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES 295 are well worth study. The larger geographic responses have long been understood. The influences of the Mis- sissippi System, together with the easy portages to the Great Lakes, on French colonization have long been ap- preciated, as well as the separatist movement of Ken- tucky and Tennessee which looked forward to unobstruct- ed use of the lower Mississippi. A local study of the geographic influences of the Missouri River in Missouri showed a high percentage of settlers from Kentucky, Ten- nessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas, many of whom fol- lowed the easy route down the Cumberland and Ohio and up the Missouri. Many brought their slaves and their politics with them, and were, naturally, different from the people in the northern part of Missouri who came largely from states north of the Ohio. There are several difficulties in correlating geogra- phic factors and history and there is abundant need of caution. Economic history is more adaptable to geogra- phic interpretation than political history, but the former offers fewer available data. Then, geographic influence is but one of many factors affecting the course of history. There are racial, social, economic, and psychological fac- tors, not to name others, which must be considered, each mutually acting and interacting. Since the specialist's view is necessarily narrow he is liable to overemphasis. Then, again, there is a constant temptation to too easy generalization. A case in point is the oft-repeated state- ment that the picturesque scenery of Greece, the moun- tains and the sea, will account for the aesthetic develop- ment of the Greeks but it is Mahaffy, I think, who calls attention to the fact that Greek literature contains scarce- ly a reference to these features in a literary sense ; rather the mountains are to be scaled and the sea to be com- bated. English writers often assert that the success of immigrants from England to America is largely due to our colder, more stimulating climate. There may be some 296 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION truth in this but the British immigrant is usually a picked man and there is open to him an economic opportunity that is denied in the mother country. A question only to be touched here is how much technical geography is necessary to the interpretation and teaching of history, and, of course, there are so many varying factors that the question can never be categori- cally answered. The historian can state, for example, that the Black Belt in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, had a soil favorable to cotton, and hence the high den- sity of slave population was there. Or he may state that the Black Belt has a rolling surface, a rich lime- stone soil with a high humus content, which content gives fertility and also the name of the belt. Or one may go further and illustrate with a diagram the evolution of the belts of the upper Coastal Plain. Doubtless I am prejudiced but it seems to me that the historian can well afford to give some attention not only to soils, topog- raphy, and climate but could even afford space and time for elementary explanatory descriptions for the purpose of impressing these features on the attention and mem- ory. Especially is this true if the factors in question have played any important part. This paper is admittedly fragmentary, both because of time and space limitations, but especially because so much work on the correlation of earth factors and human affairs yet remains to be done. The geographer should be able to set forth the surface, soil, drainage, and climate of a given region. He may also suggest how these fac- tors have influenced human activity but his suggestions should be finally checked by and must be passed upon by, investigators in the social sciences. If such cooperation shall contribute to clearer, more explicit, and more com- plete interpretation and teaching of history it is surely well worth while. LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 014 542 732 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 542 732