The Journey West What do the journals of the men and women who traveled from the settled East to the unsettled West of the United States reveal about the nature of the westward experience? In order to discern the concerns, attitudes, prejudices and everyday lives of these pioneers, we can gain a greater understanding by observing and analyzing personal diaries and journals as historical documents. Robert Robe, a 30 year old Presbyterian minister from Ohio and of Mary Stuart Bailey, a 22 year old woman who traveled West with her husband, each kept a diary during their journey West that include relevant details about the people participating in this historic time and place. Using these journals, we see a fundamental difference between the genders …show more content…
In undertaking such a long journey through uninhabited land, provisions were often hard to come by. Thus, this journal reveals Robe's preoccupation with the location and pursuit of game animals for food and sport, namely buffalo. His journal entry dated May 29, 1851 reveals his excitement at seeing a herd of buffalo to hunt for the first time, and when footmen from his group pursue and kill three buffalo, Robe comments that this hunt was a "pretty good success for the first" (Text, 386). We see that animal life in general, and the differentiation between predator and game is at the forefront of Robe's mind. His May 31st journal entry provides much detail regarding animal life that contrasts with his journal entry from the day before, which simply reads: May 30th, "Nothing remarkable today" (Text, 386). Clearly, Robe's observations center around animal life, as his May 31st entry provides details regarding the dynamics of animals along the route. Wolves are the predators to the calves of buffalo, while owls are the predators to Prairie dogs (Text, 387). Seeing the variety of animals and large quantity of buffalo (a herd of 1,000) provides Robe and his group the motivation to undertake "a very extensive ramble" in exploration and pursuit of animals (Text, 387). Thus, we see that this man's concerns along the journey were …show more content…
As a result, they lost some of the prosperity they had gained while living in Ohio, and her husband had to burn his tools and clothing at a high cost for the time. This leads Bailey to question their actions in moving West, as she states that "It really seems as though it was not right for us to come to California & lose so much. I do not think that we shall be as well off as at home" (Text, 387). So in addition to the challenges of sickness that the Baileys faced both at home with the loss of their child and upon their arrival in Sacramento, the emotional challenge of the rugged route was also emotionally draining for Bailey. She initially enjoys the novelty of doing things such as sleeping in a tent for the first time and says that she is "quite at home" in her tent, but as the journey wears on so does Mary Bailey's positive attitude toward the journey (Text, 387). This does not seem to be the case for Robe, as he neither reflects on where he is going nor the home in Ohio which he left. Instead, Robe is preoccupied with the journey
There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough knowledge of what came before the white settlers; “I came to believe that the dramatic, amusing, appalling, wondrous, despicable and heroic years of the mid-nineteenth century have to be seen to some degree in the context of the 120 centuries before them” .
In the world of Appalachia, stereotypes are abundant. There are stories told of mountaineers as lazy, bewildered, backward, and yet happy and complacent people. Mountain women are seen as diligent, strong, hard willed, and overall sturdy and weathered, bearing the burden of their male counterparts. These ideas of mountain life did not come out of thin air; they are the direct product of sensational nineteenth century media including print journalism and illustrative art that has continuously mislead and wrongfully represented the people of Appalachia. These stories, written and told by outsiders, served very little purpose to Appalachian natives other than means of humiliation and degradation. They served mostly to convince readers of the need for so-called civilized people and companies to take over the land and industry of the region, in particular the need for mineral rights, railroads, and logging as the mountain folk were wasting those valuable resources necessary for the common good.
When their journey began in 1846, the members of the Donner and Reed families had high hopes of reaching California, and they would settle at nothing less. Their dream of making a new life for themselves represented great determination. When their packed wagons rolled out of Springfield, Missouri, they thought of their future lives in California. The Reed family’s two-story wagon was actually called the “pioneer palace car”, because it was full of everything imaginable including an iron stove and cushioned seats and bunks for sleeping. They didn’t want to leave their materialistic way of life at home.
Modern day interpretations of pioneer women are mostly inaccurate and romanticized as easy, and luxurious in a new land however, that is far from the truth. Overall, pioneer women had many jobs that were underappreciated, they weren’t valued as men but without them many people in the West wouldn’t have survived and had to leave so much to go on a trip that took weeks and was no vacation, because women pioneers would have to cook and clean and take care of her children and husband, while on a wagon with having to adapt to the changing weather and climates, they did jobs that were considered as “men’s jobs” and worked as hard as men to survive in the west during the Manifest Destiny. Therefore, women pioneers were overlooked as an insignificant part of the Westward Expansion.
If Daniel Boone was destined to become a man of the wild, an explorer of unmapped spaces, his boyhood was the perfect preparation. He came to know the friendly Indians in the forests, and early he was marking the habits of wild things and bringing them down with a crude whittled spear. When he was twelve his father gave him a rifle, and his career as a huntsman began.
...to Americans: if their prospects in the East were poor, then they could perhaps start over in the West as a farmer, rancher, or even miner. The frontier was also romanticized not only for its various opportunities but also for its greatly diverse landscape, seen in the work of different art schools, like the “Rocky Mountain School” and Hudson River School, and the literature of the Transcendentalists or those celebrating the cowboy. However, for all of this economic possibility and artistic growth, there was political turmoil that arose with the question of slavery in the West as seen with the Compromise of 1850 and Kansas-Nebraska Act. As Frederick Jackson Turner wrote in his paper “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” to the American Historical Association, “the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.”
Although early nineteenth century Kansas was vast in territory, the land was mostly unpopulated. This cheap abundant land along with the dream of a better life lured farmers from the east to start their lives in Kansas. Many people were driven to pack their belongings and start their westward bound journey. Floyd Benjamin St...
The small community of Hallowell, Maine was no different than any other community in any part of the new nation – the goals were the same – to survive and prosper. Life in the frontier was hard, and the settlement near the Kennebec Valley was no different than what the pioneers in the west faced. We hear many stories about the forefathers of our country and the roles they played in the early days but we don’t hear much about the accomplishments of the women behind those men and how they contributed to the success of the communities they settled in. Thanks to Martha Ballard and the diary that she kept for 27 years from 1785-1812, we get a glimpse into...
When looking at the vast lands of Texas after the Civil War, many different people came to the lands in search for new opportunities and new wealth. Many were lured by the large area that Texas occupied for they wanted to become ranchers and cattle herders, of which there was great need for due to the large population of cows and horses. In this essay there are three different people with three different goals in the adventures on the frontier lands of Texas in its earliest days. Here we have a woman's story as she travels from Austin to Fort Davis as we see the first impressions of West Texas. Secondly, there is a very young African American who is trying his hand at being a horse rancher, which he learned from his father. Lastly we have a Mexican cowboy who tries to fight his way at being a ranch hand of a large ranching outfit.
The time of westward expansion was filled of hardships and challenges for the citizens of America. They left their homes at their own will to help make life better for themselves, and would letter recognize how they helped our country expand. The people of the Oregon trail risked their lives to help better their lives and expand and improve the country of America. However, no reward comes without work, and the emigrants of the Oregon Trail definitely had it cut out for them. They faced challenges tougher than anyone elses during the time of westward expansion.The Emigrants of the Oregon trail had the the most difficult time surviving and thriving in the west because of environmental difficulties, illness abundance, and accident occurrence.
There has been much written about Isabella Lucy Bird being a unique individual, bold traveler, talented descriptive writer, and great example to women. These are all great ways to describe the well known traveler, however, there have been few efforts to proclaim her as the luminary of Christian faith that she is. In A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains Bird paints an awe inspiring picture of the harsh life and beautiful landscape of the Rocky Mountains in the early 19th century. Throughout her book, Bird gives grand descriptions of the breathtaking natural scenes she experiences along her travels in Lake Tahoe, Estes Park, Colorado City, Denver, Boulder and other areas within the great mountain range. Bird also recounts the hard way of life
In “Disorderly Women: Gender and Labor Militancy in the Appalachian South,” Jacquelyn Hall explains that future generations would need to grapple with the expenses of commercialization and to expound a dream that grasped financial equity and group unanimity and also women’s freedom. I determined the reasons for ladies ' insubordination neither reclassified sexual orientation parts nor overcame financial reliance. I recollected why their craving for the trappings of advancement could obscure into a self-constraining consumerism. I estimated how a belief system of sentiment could end in sexual peril or a wedded lady 's troublesome twofold day. None of that, in any case, should cloud a generation’s legacy. I understand requirements for a standard of female open work, another style of sexual expressiveness, the section of ladies into open space and political battles beforehand cornered by men all these pushed against conventional limitations even as they made new susceptibilities.
Jamestown, Virginia, is a crucial source of legends about the United States. Pocahontas, a daughter of an Indian werowance married an Englishman named John Rolfe and changed her name to Rebecca. In her article, “Gender Frontier”, Kathleen Brown underscores gender role and responsibility in both Native American and English settlers. Gender frontier is the meeting of two or more culturally specific system of knowledge about gender and nature. She also stresses the duties that they played in their societies prior to the arrival of the English people in the early colony in Virginia. Brown describes the difference values between Europeans and Native Americans in regards to what women and men should and should not do and the complex progression of
Kugel, Rebecca, and Lucy Eldersveld Murphy. Native women's history in eastern North America before 1900: a guide to research and writing. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007.
Women in the nineteenth century, for the most part, had to follow the common role presented to them by society. This role can be summed up by what historians call the “cult of domesticity”. The McGuffey Readers does a successful job at illustrating the women’s role in society. Women that took part in the overland trail as described in “Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey” had to try to follow these roles while facing many challenges that made it very difficult to do so.