176 : The Atlantic 



to hem in the EngHsh settlers and the Dutch that had founded colo- 

 nies on the Atlantic seaboard. The French, of course, made a large 

 and permanent contribution to the population of the country in ports 

 of the central Gulf coast and in Louisiana. This area and particularly 

 the city of New Orleans has continued to be the heart and center of 

 the French impact on American life but, of course, the efFects of 

 French speech and culture were not limited to this area. 



French influences continued strongly all the way up and down the 

 Mississippi Valley even after the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 

 1804. Something as fundamental as the geographic structure of the 

 country entered into this situation and this the analytical French 

 mind was quick to discern. 



Before the days of highways and railroads, the Mississippi River 

 and its tributaries constituted the transportation system of the whole 

 heart of the continent. Once the early settlers crossed the Alleghenies 

 and the Appalachians, they were inevitably dependent upon some 

 phase of the Mississippi River drainage. Their movement westward 

 followed the flow of the Ohio and the Tennessee or one of the other 

 Mississippi tributaries. 



The results of their forestry operations, their hunting, their trap- 

 ping, their agriculture were all carried on the Mississippi River to the 

 port of New Orleans where they were sold or shipped to other mar- 

 kets. The settlers themselves often accompanied their goods down 

 the river and, after they were disposed of, proceeded by sailing vessel 

 to one of the Atlantic ports and then went over the mountains home- 

 ward again. Many of the settlers made such trips repeatedly and thus 

 the influence of the French settlement in Louisiana — its language, its 

 customs, its cookery, its amusements, its methods of doing business — 

 became a part of the experience of whole generations of settlers in 

 the central West. 



The French settlers In eastern Canada have, as we all know, 

 maintained their own character and integrity right down to the 

 present time. They have profoundly affected the history of Canada 

 and the development of its government. In addition, the hostility 

 between the French settlers and the English settlers expressed 

 through the French and Indian Wars was an important ingredient 

 of United States history during the colonial period. 



In times of peace French Canadian settlers and influences have also 

 penetrated into upper New York State and the upper tier of New 

 England. It began when French lumbermen crossed the border and 

 found employment in lumbering operations in Maine, New Hamp- 



