American Expansion II

“Magnetism of the West”

• Men & Family needs:– “Once men felt those powerful lures (Gold &

Oregon Fever), they were bound to tie their lives and the lives of their family to the kite strings of history before it blew away and left them behind. Nothing would keep them from the setting forth on the journey”

• Ripped away from social circles

“Magnetism of the West”

• Women & family needs:– Margaret Hereford “Dr. Wilson has

determined to go to California. I am going with him, as there is no other alternative…Oh, my dear Mother…I thought I had felt bad when I wrote you…from Independence (Missouri), but it was nothing like this.”

– Agnes Stewart – “O I feel lonesome today…sometimes I can govern myself but not always…but I schooled (reined) in pretty well considering all things.”

“Family in the West”

• Keep family together– Jane Cazneau “it is well enough for single

men to run away from Indians, but when people had stock and children…the shortest way was for the mother to sit down by the fire and run bullets for her old man…”

– Christian obligation

• Families served as natural units of social order – Women the nucleus!

“Family in the West”• Martha Ann Morrison –

– “The men had a great deal of anxiety and all the care of the families, but still mothers had the families directly in their hands…Some women had a great deal of suffering on the trail…I remember one little girl that died and was buried…her mother had a great deal of trouble and suffering…Mothers on the road had to undergo more trial and suffering than anyone else.”

“Family”

• Conquest of Man vs. Domestication of Family– Economic lure– Progress– Equality/Democracy

• Patrimonial & Entrepreneurial – Pat. Passing of land from generation to

generation (Subsistence)– Searching for opportunities/investments

“Pregnancy & Duty”• Pregnancy – no excuse for not fulfilling duties

– Catherine Sager “not being accustomed to ridding in a covered wagon, the motion made us all sick,…when it rained it made it impossible to roll back the cover and let in fresh air…it caused a damp and musty smell that was very nauseating”

– Birth in a Wagon – “pregnancy in a damp, wagon that continually rocked was a dismal fate for any women…water ran through the tent, bedclothes were saturated with water (and other liquids)…wagons overturned.”

– Cooked, packed, pitched tents, washing, collecting buffalo chips, care for children, yoked cattle, and chased down cattle

“Children & Death”

• High percentage of parents dieing

• Children became orphans/sickness (47-48)

• High infant/Maternal mortality rates/Accidents (49-50)

• Fear of dead being uncovered; death trail 1500 – 2000 crosses.

“Children in the Frontier”

• Societal roles changed• Greater expectations

– master fears– face challenges head on– Independence– Life is uncertain

• Versatile workers/economic contributors• Migration based on opportunities• Rich lore of childhood• Children became one with the landscape and

carried on the ideology that the “frontier experience gave Americans their greatest strengths and noblest virtues.”

“Religion: A Domesticating Force”

• Mission to the Indians• Gov’t used religion:

– Infrastructure (missions, schools, hospitals, mills, printing press, economics, orphanages, law, order, town meetings)

• Growth of Utopian Societies– Isolated– freedom

• Clash of cultures - domestication (acculturation/assimilation)

“Agricultural Empire”

• 1800-1850 1.5 million farmers in America

• Farming: Ebbed and Flowed (rain vs. drought, Immigration)

• Cultural appeal

• Gov’t encouraged migration– Land became rare (water, homesteading,)

“Miners & the West”

“Native Americans Response”

• Mostly Eastern – Limited– Treaties

• Indian Removal act; 1830s (Jacksonian Politics)– Trail of Tears (5 civilized tribes) 4,000 dead – The Seminole War (1835 – 1842) brutal war