On the Fringes of the Prairie, 1800-1850
Side by Side: Yankees and Southerners

How were they different?

"Our neighbors," wrote New Englander Lucy Maynard, "are principally from Indiana and Kentucky, some from Virginia, all friendly but very different from our people in their manners and language and every other way." These early settlers of Illinois, the Yankees from New England and the Southerners, or Plain Folks, as they called themselves, lived side by side on the fringes of the prairie but had very different values and social patterns.

Find out how these two cultural groups compared in the areas of:

Yankees Southerners
Northerners [6k] Ethnic Background
Population Size
Why they came
Families
Housing
Communities
Beliefs
Food
Views of each other
Southerners [6k]

Button Bar [8k]

© Illinois State Museum 31-Dec-96