ABSTRACT
In such a situation place becomes sacred. In the United States the view of land as place was widespread and Important during the period before the Civil War. The value of land as place was reinforced by the nature of the economy, for after all most of the residents drew their livelihood diiectly irom this soil, and few of them had seen any other place that differed much from theirs. Then, too, government in that period was usually local, and representation at higher levels was by locality, No wonder politics ranked first as a subject for discussion; religion, important as it was. was of a lesser order. One might say that politics was the formal religion of place in early America a local patriotism we now find bard to imagine.
