Here and there were Republican islands in a Democratic or Conservative sea.

The largest and most important exception was the Appalachian South, divided among eight different States.

It is a large region, to this day thinly populated and lacking in means of communication with the outside world.

Though it has some bustling cities, thriving towns, and prosperous communities, the Appalachian South today is predominantly rural.

In the 216 counties in this region or its foothills, there were in 1910 only 43 towns with more than 2500 inhabitants.
This Appalachian region had been settled by emigrants from the lowlands.
Some of them were of the thriftless sort who were forced from the better lands in the East by the inexorable working of economic law.