ABSTRACT
The growth of the New World land to the settlers was often framed in biblical terms of the Garden of Eden, which now could be reclaimed. Early on in the history of North America, colonists divided the space “that we call America” into South and North east of the Appalachian Mountains and the West beyond them, before referring to the “Far West” beyond the vertical marker of the Mississippi River. The unofficial division of North and South spaces in this case conveys the view that one affiliates with a regional culture. A cultural region is one in which residents over a geographic area share a number of expressive features that differ from others. A way that perceptions of space shaped regional identity and a difficulty with national unity was in the association of plantation economy with the Lowland South.
