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Journeys

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Great Smoky Mountains Area Settlers

The southern Appalachia Mountains shaped the peoples who inhabited them. The bounties and the scarcities profoundly influenced the region’s history, culture, and economy. In late colonial times, groups of predominantly British and German immigrants traveled south from Pennsylvania along the Great Wagon Road to western Virginia, some bringing enslaved Africans with them. In succeeding generations, they pressed farther south and west, seeking better land and opportunity. They frequently clashed with Native Americans until the U.S. government forcibly removed the Native Peoples from the land.

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