PHYSIOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN TENNESSEE. 61 



Settlement. The settlement of the country has been confined to the 

 uplands away from the swampy flood plains. Farming on an extensive 

 scale became the rule wherever the soils were good, slavery and cotton 

 became features of the life. The slave owners were of course southern 

 in their sympathies, and have been Democratic subsequently in their po- 

 litical faith. It is of interest, however, in this connection to note that a 

 belt of sandy and clayey soils in parts of Hardin and McNairy counties 

 was not favorable to large land holdings and slave labor. Farms in this 

 section were usually smaller and slave labor was not profitable. During 

 the Civil War the inhabitants largely went to the Federal Army, and are 

 in political faith today largely Republican. 



Roads in this region have liberty to go practically anywhere, the only 

 obstacles being the swamps along the larger streams. Railways in like 

 manner may be located wherever desired, and towns have grown up with 

 little or no physical restraint as to their location. Chance, or at least other 

 features than those due to the physiography of the country, have been 

 responsible for their location, and their subsequent development has de- 

 pended partly on the soils of the vicinity and partly on the development 

 of railway communication. 



Along the Mississippi, there is usually a flood plain of some width be- 

 tween the stream and the edge of the upland. At three points, however, 

 the river swings against the upland on the eastern side of its valley and 

 has formed bluffs. Towns known as Fulton, Randolph and Memphis 

 were early founded on these three bluffs. Of these, Memphis soon gained 

 an advantage because of conditions that were largely fortuitous, ad as 

 a result of its early vigorous growth has attained an ascendency that has 

 enabled it to completely overshadow the other two. 



The future of the West Tennessee region should be that of agricultural 

 prosperity. There is already much good agricultural practice, and with 

 further improvement of conditions in farming, the development of better 

 roads, the drainage of the river swamps, and the further extension of 

 truck and small fruit farming, there should be an excellent basis for per- 

 manent community prosperity. There are, however, in the region just 

 enough lands that are naturally poor to give a semblance of excuse for 

 local thriftlessness, and so we may expect for years that backward com- 

 munities will exist locally in the region. 



WESTERN VALLEY OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER. 



In its lower course the Tennessee River flows north across the State 

 and has cut a valley usually several miles in width to a depth of 300 to 



