The underlying message across many of the documents read, and during discussion in class on 9/22, is the disadvantage that many peoples faced during the westward expansion in North America (Manifest Destiny), of the mid-19th century. This narrative was illustrated in a painting by John Gast, titled “American Progress”. Our class’s interpretation of this painting was one of negativity – as if settlers traveling west were under the assumption they were traveling into the dark, with the necessity to bring along with them the light of American prosperity. Along with our interpretation of this painting, we analyzed the work of John O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan further propagates the notion that our movement into westward lands is entirely acceptable,
In a lively account filled that is with personal accounts and the voices of people that were in the past left out of the historical armament, Ronald Takaki proffers us a new perspective of America’s envisioned past. Mr. Takaki confronts and disputes the Anglo-centric historical point of view. This dispute and confrontation is started in the within the seventeenth-century arrival of the colonists from England as witnessed by the Powhatan Indians of Virginia and the Wamapanoag Indians from the Massachusetts area. From there, Mr. Takaki turns our attention to several different cultures and how they had been affected by North America. The English colonists had brought the African people with force to the Atlantic coasts of America. The Irish women that sought to facilitate their need to work in factory settings and maids for our towns. The Chinese who migrated with ideas of a golden mountain and the Japanese who came and labored in the cane fields of Hawaii and on the farms of California. The Jewish people that fled from shtetls of Russia and created new urban communities here. The Latinos who crossed the border had come in search of the mythic and fabulous life El Norte.
In the 1830’s America was highly influenced by the Manifest Destiny Ideal. Manifest Destiny was the motivating force behind the rapid expansion of America into the West. This ideal was highly sponsored by posters, newspapers, and various other methods of communication. Propaganda was and is still an incredibly common way to spread an idea to the masses. Though Manifest Destiny was not an official government policy, it led to the passing of the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act gave applicants freehold titles of undeveloped land outside of the original thirteen colonies. It encouraged Westward colonization and territorial acquisition. The Homestead Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. To America, Manifest Destiny was the idea that America was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic, to the Pacific Ocean. Throughout this time Native Americans were seen as obstacles because they occupied land that the United States needed to conquer to continue with their Manifest Destiny Ideal. Many wars were fought between the A...
Joseph Porter’s, “A River of Promise” provides a detailed report of the first explorers of the North American West. The piece engages in a well written secondary source to argue that the expedition of Lewis and Clark, the two famously known for exploring the American Western frontier, were credited for significant findings that were not completely their own. Joseph C. Porter utilizes text from diaries and journals to highlight the help and guidance from the natives and prior European explorers which ultimately allowed the Lewis and Clark expedition to occur. The document by Porter also reveals that Lewis and Clark at the time were establishing crucial government documents which were the structure for scientific, technological and social understanding
It was thought that God had a plan for Whites to move across both coasts and start the New World. In the painting, “Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way,” it shows how difficult and unforgiving the trip westward was (Pohl 163). However, the painting also shows a sigh of relief and excitement that Native American travelers had finally met their destination (Pohl 163). Unfortunately, Native American’s new way of life would be cut short years later due to Andrew Jackson’s secured Passage of the Indian Removal Bill (Pohl 163). This bill was responsible for relocating 70,000 Native Americans to Oklahoma (Pohl 163). The Cherokee who were the most affected group of Native Americans had adopted the living format of Whites. Once they were removed, Whites were able to take over their land. This removal also led to the “Trail of Tears” which ended up taking the lives of 4,000 to 16,000 Cherokee Indians. The Manifest Destiny also caused the uproar and eventual war with
In The Frontier in American History (1893) written by historian Jackson Turner. Turner makes a captivating argument stating that westward expansion played an important role in shaping the American character. Manifest destiny was an important concept in American history and started in the nineteenth century. It was assumed that Americans can control land because it is their “god-given” right. Many of the ideals and themes in Manifest Destiny were already seen throughout the United States but became more prominent during this time. The development of an “American identity” was due to the expansion of America. The American culture was a big part of Manifest destiny because this was a basis of reason to continue expansion westward. Turner’s argument is accurate and certain themes support his view on Manifest destiny. These include the work, labor and economic development of that time, the roles of
Daniel Richter's Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America, turns many heads as Richter changes the traditional outlook of the Westward expansion all the way to the American Revolution by viewing certain events through the eyes of the Native Americans who were settled in this land years before the new colonizations started. It was not easy to try and make a complete work about the different perspectives that the Natives had, due to the fact that many sources are works from Europeans or they were filtered by them. Richter explains that Native people sketch out elaborative paintings in their house or on barks of living trees, many of these sources obviously have not lasted long enough for us to examine. This book, however gives great detail and fully analyzes the "aggressively expansionist Euro-American United States" (p. 8-7) that rose from what belonged to Indian Country. Richter challenges you to compose a new framework of the Indian and European encounters reforming the "master narrative" of early American colonization from the Native point of view.
John Gast’s painting titled American Progress perfectly portrays the idea of manifest destiny that engulfed the minds of Americans. Portrayed in the right side of the painting is indubitable western influence with boats, a bridge in the distance, and trains with little or no track in front of them which allows the mind to conclude the newcomers are pushing west. In the middle of the landscape are horses, buggies, and covered wagons, showing a slight increase in modernity compared to what is shown in the far left of the painting, Indians or better known by 18th and 19th century Europeans as savages. Gast also places the portrayal of western influence in the light portion of the piece, and the old primitive way of live portrayed by savages on the dark side of the piece. This is not coincidence, primitive behavior was viewed as improper and it needed enlightenment this is precisely what Gast presents in American Progress. In the bottom left corner an animal shows its teeth, which could be a signal of the dangers to moving west. What is probably noticed first however is the woman in the center of the painting. The angel, the guiding light of Manifest Destiny the one who is bringing the light that you see so prominently in the right side of the painting. Manifest Destiny was thought of as God’s call to bring western enlightenment to the west. Those who were enlightened and civilizations created by those who were enlightened were viewed as utopian. However, eleven years before Gast painted American Progress was the start of a war that rattled America. Westward expansion and subsequent acquisition of the west was fought over and the utopian ideal Gast portrays was...
Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.
Henry Miller’s excerpt, through its implications of isolationism, reveals the flaws of Andrew Jackson’s support of the Indian Removal. Although the term “Manifest Destiny” had not been coined during Jackson’s presidency, the sentiment of expansion remained omnipresent. The South, especially eager to expand their farming lands, fervidly supported removing the Native Americans from their territory. Jackson and Southerners “[regarded] the entire world as [their] home.” However, they did not “work
Manifest Destiny! This simple phrase enraptured the United States during the late 1800’s, and came to symbolize an era of westward expansion through numerous powerful entities. The expansion can be inspected though many different contextual lenses, but if examined among the larger histories of the United States, this movement can be classified as one of the most influential developments of the post-Civil War period. While very influential to the larger part of American history, the seemingly barbaric methods that were used conquer the western lands and their peoples took physical and economical forms that proved to be a plague upon the West.
"Chapter 2 Western Settlement and the Frontier." Major Problems in American History: Documents and Essays. Ed. Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, Edward J. Blum, and Jon Gjerde. 3rd ed. Vol. II: Since 1865. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. 37-68. Print.
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. This is why the Americans held the belief that they were destined to expand across the continent. One thing that the American settlers did not acknowledge was that all progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem—the Native Americans. Within the painting, American Progress, John Gast incorporated these ideas, beliefs, and problems all onto one image. The painting, American Progress, employs pathos and logos in an attempt to convince the audience that it was the heavenly duty of Americans to expand the country all the way to the Pacific Ocean. It portrays Western expansion by Americans as a glorious and righteous thing. In reality, however, expansion may not have been as just as the painting makes it seem.
John Gast’s painting titled American Progress perfectly portrays the idea of manifest destiny that was engulfing the minds of Americans. In the right side of the painting you see western influence with the boats, a bridge in the distance, and trains with little or no track in front of them allowing the mind to think they are pushing west. In the middle of the landscape are horses, buggies, covered wagons, showing a slight increase in modernity compared to what is to the far left of the painting, the Indians, savages. Gast also places that of western influence in the light and the old primitive way on the dark. This is not coincidence, the idea that primitive behavior is improper and in the dark of what it could be is precisely what Gast wanted to present. You also see in bottom left corner an animal showing its teeth, another signal of the danger that the move west is. What is probably noticed first is the woman in the center of the painting. The angel is the guiding light of manifest destiny, the one who is bringing the light that you see so prominently in the right side of the pa...
In the article review “ How the West was Lost” the author, William T. Hagan explains that in a brief thirty-eight year period between 1848 and 1886, the Indians of the Western United States lost their fight with the United States to keep their lands. While nothing in the article tells us who Hagan is, or when the article was written, his central theme of the article is to inform us of how the Indians lost their lands to the white settlers. I found three main ideas in the article that I feel that Hagan was trying to get across to us. Hagan put these events geographically and chronologically in order first by Plains Indians, then by the Western Indians.
“Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not preparation for life but is life itself.” John Dewey describes and supports progressivism, an education philosophy that I professionally identify with. Progressivism is a student centered philosophy that focuses on experiences, opportunities, and values that enhance a student 's learning and life. The role of the teacher is to act primarily as a facilitator of learning, they encourage and guide students to explore and promote individual development. As a future educator I believe it is important to involve students and allow them to take responsibility for their own learning and achieving their goals. The role of the student is to discover, engage, and express themselves.