After the Revolution, four rival groups traveled west, each bringing its culture along. New Englanders went to upstate New York, to 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 Deep Southern culture spread to parts of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and eastern Texas. New Netherland 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 it eventually lost), and Massachusetts claimed all of New York west of Seneca Lake. Though Massachusetts lost the claim, it was 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, setting aside land for a church, town green, and school, and they also established town governments with well-run civic affairs.