Many early Jewish settlers were traveling peddlers, which facilitated greater mobility and enabled them to save up money and eventually start their own businesses.[3] Although some traveled extensively across the United States, others concentrated their trade in certain areas and contributed to the Jewish communities that began to build up in the South. In contrast to the Jewish immigrants arriving in Northern cities, such as New York, who were crowded into Jewish neighborhoods and ghettos, Southern Jews enjoyed a greater degree of prosperity and tolerance, mainly because they were better able to integrate into the smaller Southern communities.