They lived on the far periphery looking inward toward a distant and superior metropolitan core from which standards and the sanctioned forms of organized life emanated. Unlike the inhabitants of the British Isles, they were not located at the center of their culture looking outward toward exotic margins. ![]() Historian Bernard Bailyn observed: “The colonists lived in exceptional circumstances and shared a peculiar outlook. Morgan noted: “Ownership of property gave not only economic independence but also political independence to the average American.” 2 The vast amount of available land created a society different from that from which many Americans had emigrated. 1 Early America concentrated on becoming an ownership society or perhaps an ownership-exploitation society. “The population of the United States was like a body of water that was being steadily enlarged by internal spring and external tributes,” wrote historian Max Farand. In early America the pursuit of land drove the movement west.
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