After the Revolution, four rival groups traveled west, each bringing its culture along with settlement. New Englanders went to upstate New York and the northern parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, and to Michigan and Wisconsin. Midlanders headed west to the Heartland with their mix of Anglo, German, and Scots-Irish culture. Appalachian people went down the Ohio River to parts of Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and the Hill Country of Texas, while the Deep Southern slave-holding culture spread to parts of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and eastern Texas. New Netherlands and the Tidewater remained trapped on the coast.

New Englanders spread west because their soil, rocky and thin, had already begun to wear out. Connecticut originally claimed the northern third of Pennsylvania (which they eventually lost), and Massachusetts claimed all of New York west of Seneca Lake. Though Massachusetts lost the claim, they were allowed to direct the settlement of the region, which still looks and votes like New England. New Englanders were also allowed to direct the settlement of part of northern Ohio and the Muskingum Valley.

When New Englanders settled in a region, they brought their characteristic communities and towns with land set aside for a church, town green, and school, and they also established town governments with well-run civic affairs.