What is the setting of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?

The setting
of Sleepy Hollow, New York, is significant because one of the story's major themes is the
conflict between "country" people and "city" people. The original settlers
of the Tarry Town area were Dutch, and they are depicted as strong, hearty farm people. Abraham
"Brom Bones" Brunt and the Van Tassels are examples of these people. On the other
hand, Ichabod Crane is an outsider from Connecticut. He is a Yankee--an city man with English
ancestry. 

Sleepy Hollow is a secluded and very small glen off of the Tarry
Town settlement area. This also helps set the mood for the spooky and comic events of the
ending. If it were a city, or even a larger town, Brom Bones's Headless Horseman trick would not
have worked against Ichabod Crane. Also, at the Van Tassels's party earlier, Brom Bones and the
other Dutch farmers told old ghost stories from the area in order to lay the groundwork to scare
Ichabod Crane. This worked because Crane is an outsider, whereas the Dutch farmers are the
original settlers of Sleepy Hollow. Brom Bones knows the land and the history behind it, but
Crane does not. In the end, when Brom Bones disguises himself as the Headless Horseman of legend
(said to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper from the Revolutionary War), he chases Ichabod Crane
all the way to the Old Dutch Burying Ground, a church and cemetery yard in Sleepy Hollow. In
this Dutch colonial setting, the "country" man essentially wins over the
"city" man. 

It's clear thatthought of the place where his story
takes place as very significant. After all, the name of the town is in the title--"."
Even more evidence is that fact that Irving begins the story with a lengthy and vivid
description of the town and its surroundings. It is a sequestered area with an aura of magic and
dreaminess. Sleepy Hollow lies in a little valley two miles away from the small market port of
Tarry Town, and it is "one of the quietest places in the world." 

The other consideration of the setting of Washington Irving's "The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow" is the time period in which the story took place. Although Irving published
his story in 1820, it takes place around 1790, 30 years earlier. The American Revolutionary War
ended in 1783, so the story takes place in the years very soon right after the war. This was
intentional, because the Revolutionary War is an important aspect of the narrative. The Headless
Horseman himself is said to have been a soldier (a hired German trooper by the British army) in
the war. Furthermore, Ichabod Crane's status as a Yankee, a "American" on the side of
the colonies, is very prominent.