americans head west seeking their manifest destiny…. by morgan j. burris & jenny strader...
TRANSCRIPT
Americans Head West seeking Their Manifest Destiny….
By Morgan J. Burris & Jenny Strader
Lexington Middle School
Note Page 17 A“The Western Pioneers”
John L. O’Sullivan coined the term MANIFEST DESTINY (1845):
God has given the continent to Americans and wanted them to settle WESTERN lands
"The Western Pioneers"
1800 – only 387,000 white settlers west of Appalachian mtnsBy 1820, over 2.4 million.
By Civil War more than on Atlantic coast. Reasons: Religious Freedom & Land
1st pioneers called SQUATTERS - because they settled on land that they did not officially own
Government eventually guaranteed squatters they could have the right to buy the land up to 160 acres for $1.25/acre
Farming the New Lands
New Technology that helped open the Great Plains for farmingJethro Wood – Iron plow 1819John Deere - Steel Plow 1837Cyrus McCormick - Mechanical
Reaper 1834 Allowed Wheat (Grain) to be harvested with
far less efforts
Plows and Reapers
Wooden Plow
IRON PLOW
Steel Plow
MECHANICAL REAPER
Why?? Thought the Great Plains were NOT Fertile
Closer to markets in China and AsiaOregon: Claimed by US, Native Am. &
Britain- 1818, agreed to both settle and fix border dispute later
Settling the Pacific Coast
Convert – American missionaries tried to convert Native Americans and persuaded others to come to
land….
Willamette Valley, Oregon
Mountain Men= Guides; created several East to West Passages
Kit Carson – Famous TrailblazerOregon Trail & Santa Fe Trail – most
popular routes / maps Overlanders - People who moved out West
Westward Migration
Took 5-6 Months15 miles a dayTraveled in Covered WagonsUsed Staging Areas on Frontier Towns
to gather supplies, guides, and other families to go West together
Donner Party (1846):- 87 Overlanders followed guidebook and got trapped in Mountains. 41 died of starvation and the others were forced to eat the dead
Wagon Trail Life
o Most Overlanders had a great fear of conflict with
Native Americanso Most were peaceful; offered helpo Native Americans did fear the new arrivals
would take away their food and shelter and alter the Buffalo migration patterns
TREATY of FORT LARAMIE:- Signed by 8 Native Am. Tribes and they agreed to specific territorial boundaries and to maintain peaceful relations against US settlers & Gov’t Payments- Gave the U.S. Settlers land and made other areas ‘off limits’ to settle (Great Plains)- Treaty was violated by Americans several times
Native Americans
Signing of the Treaty
Young image of B. Young
The Mormon Migration
Reason – Religious Freedom
Joseph Smith murdered, Brigham Young leads thousands to Great Salt Lake, Utah in 1847.
Became a popular Trail
The Death of Joseph Smith
Brigham Young
Note Page 17 A“The Western Pioneers”