<Dl> <Dd> The typical frontier society therefore was one in which class distinctions were minimized . The wealthy speculator, if one was involved, usually remained at home, so that ordinarily no one of wealth was a resident . The class of landless poor was small . The great majority were landowners, most of whom were also poor because they were starting with little property and had not yet cleared much land nor had they acquired the farm tools and animals which would one day make them prosperous . Few artisans settled on the frontier except for those who practiced a trade to supplement their primary occupation of farming . There might be a storekeeper, a minister, and perhaps a doctor; and there were a number of landless laborers . All the rest were farmers . </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> The typical frontier society therefore was one in which class distinctions were minimized . The wealthy speculator, if one was involved, usually remained at home, so that ordinarily no one of wealth was a resident . The class of landless poor was small . The great majority were landowners, most of whom were also poor because they were starting with little property and had not yet cleared much land nor had they acquired the farm tools and animals which would one day make them prosperous . Few artisans settled on the frontier except for those who practiced a trade to supplement their primary occupation of farming . There might be a storekeeper, a minister, and perhaps a doctor; and there were a number of landless laborers . All the rest were farmers . </Dd> <P> In the South, frontier areas that lacked transportation, such as the Appalachian Mountain region, remained based on subsistence farming and resembled the egalitarianism of their northern counterparts, although they had a larger upper - class of slaveowners . North Carolina was representative . However frontier areas of 1700 that had good river connections were increasingly transformed into plantation agriculture . Rich men came in, bought up the good land, and worked it with slaves . The area was no longer "frontier". It had a stratified society comprising a powerful upper - class white landowning gentry, a small middle - class, a fairly large group of landless or tenant white farmers, and a growing slave population at the bottom of the social pyramid . Unlike the North, where small towns and even cities were common, the South was overwhelmingly rural . </P> <P> The seaboard colonial settlements gave priority to land ownership for individual farmers, and as the population grew they pushed westward for fresh farm land . Unlike Britain, where a small number of landlords owned most of the good land, ownership in America was cheap, easy and widespread . Land ownership brought a degree of independence as well as a vote for local and provincial offices . The typical New England settlements were quite compact and small--under a square mile . Conflict with the Native Americans arose out of political issues, namely who would rule . Early frontier areas east of the Appalachian Mountains included the Connecticut River valley, and northern New England (which was a move to the north, not the west). </P>

What year did thousands of settlers head for the great plains