Social Structure Communication between settlements was poor, except during major upheavals such as the Civil War; interaction with the rest of the nation was limited. Isolation was common in the 19th and 20th centuries. Politics and religion were the two primary opportunities for mountain residents to engage in organized community life, but these institutions themselves were organized along kinship lines. Local political factions divided based on kinship groups, and local churches developed as extended family communities. Both institutions reflected the importance of personal relationships and local autonomy in their functioning and structure. Bound by rather tenuous ties to the larger society (as was evident during the Civil War), the mountain population reflected the values ​​and social patterns that characterized most premodern rural communities. Most mountaineers owned their own land and occupied and cultivated that land with labor provided by their families. Although slavery existed in nearly every mountain county before the Civil War and thrived among a few wealthy families in the valley's larger communities, the “peculiar institution” never influenced Appalachian culture and society as it did that of the Southern Plains. Indeed, free black settlements thrived in some areas of Appalachia both before and after the war, and their descendants came to have much in common culturally and economically with their white neighbors. Transportation After the 1830s, the construction of railroads and macadam highways began to bring improved transportation facilities to American communities, but the transportation revolution did not affect most rural roads until the 20th century. Prewar investors, public and private,...... middle of paper....... In the new generation of Southern leaders, moreover, the path to wealth no longer seemed to lead to plantations but rather to coal and fields Appalachian iron. Early Industrial Developments For urban middle-class Americans of the late 19th century, nothing symbolized the progress of American civilization as much as the railroad. Not only had the great increase in railroad construction after the Civil War helped create a modern market economy, but the iron horse itself seemed to embody the energy, strength, and technology of the new order. Indeed, the expansion of railways from urban centers was an integral part of the modernization process, linking the natural and human resources of rural areas to the industrializing core. Works Cited Eller, R. (1982). Miners, workers and mountaineers. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press.