Questions for Class Discussion

1. What historical factors worked to make the Old Northwest (todays Midwest) a distinctive region with its own identity? What perspectives divided the regions settlers?
   
   
2. Was it inevitable that the Old Northwest would eventually align itself with the Northeast in the struggles that led up to the Civil War? Why did even settlers originally from the South tend to dislike the southern plantation elite?
   
   

Suggested Student Exercises

• Trace the patterns of settlement and institution-building across both the southern and northern tier of the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Perhaps contrast the Western Reserve area of northern Ohio, heavily settled by Yankees, with the Ohio River counties of southern Ohio, heavily settled by pioneers from Virginia and Kentucky.
  
  
• Use a current religious atlas of the United States to discover how persistent the original patterns of religious settlement remain in the Old Northwest states; e.g., are Methodists, Baptists, and Disciples of Christ still more prominent in the southern tier, and Presbyterians and Congregationalists (United Church of Christ) still stronger in the northern tier? The patterns of denominational sponsorship of colleges in the region might also be examined.