Settlers took a number of routes west. People from important regions and places like New England, New York, and Pennsylvania pushed into a region northwest of the Ohio River called the Northwest Territory. Some traveled west from Albany, New York, along the Mohawk River, through the Appalachians, and then west along the plains south of Lake Ontario. Many then sailed across Lake Erie into Ohio.
Another well-traveled path was the Great Valley Road that ran southward from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, through Maryland and western Virginia. Some settlers would then continue south and west along the trail opened by Daniel Boone before the Revolution. Known as the Wilderness Road, it led through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky.
Other settlers pushed west across the Appalachians to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There, they loaded their animals and wagons onto flatboats, or flat-bottomed boats, and journeyed down the Ohio River into Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Flatboats were well suited to the shallow waters of the Ohio, which became known as the “Gateway to the West.” Even when carrying heavy cargoes, these barges rode high in the water.
Pioneers from Georgia and South Carolina followed other trails west to Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Enslaved African Americans were forced to move with settlers or sold to new owners in these territories. There, enslaved workers cleared fields and built plantations in the rich, fertile soil.
Before long, some western territories had populations large enough to apply for statehood.
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