The Donner Party

8848 Words18 Pages

DAVID McCULLOUGH, Host: Good evening and welcome to The American Experience. I'm David McCullough.
At the start of spring in the year 1846 an appealing advertisement appeared in the Springfield, Illinois, Gazette. ''Westward ho,'' it declared. ''Who wants to go to California without costing them anything? As many as eight young men of good character who can drive an ox team will be accommodated. Come, boys, you can have as much land as you want without costing you anything.'' The notice was signed G. Donner, George Donner, leader of what was to become the most famous of all the hundreds of wagon trains to start for the far west, the tragic, now nearly mythic Donner Party.
For years Western scholars and novelists have been drawn to the story, yet until now there has been no documentary. Ric Burns's film is a first.
Westward ho, indeed. If ever there was a moment when America seemed in the grip of some great, out-of-the-ordinary pull, it was in 1846. The whole mood was for movement, expansion, and the whole direction was westward. It was in 1846 that the Mormons set out on their trek to the Great Salt Lake. It was in 1846 that the Mexican war began and effectively all of Texas, Mexico and California were added to the United States.
And it wasn't just young men who answered the call. Whole families and people of all stations in life joined the caravan, which is part of the fascination of our haunting story. One is struck, for example, by how many women there were in the Donner party and how many of them survived the horrific ordeal they met. Imagine packing up an entire household, saying good-bye to all you've known and setting off to walk essentially to walk to California, a continent away, little knowing what was in store.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE: ''It is odd to watch with what feverish ardor Americans pursue prosperity. Ever tormented by the shadowy suspicion that they may not have chosen the shortest route to get it. They cleave to the things of this world as if assured that they will never die, and yet rush to snatch any that comes within their reach as if they expected to stop living before they had relished them. Death steps in, in the end, and stops them before they have grown tired of this futile pursuit of that complete felicity which always escapes them.

Show More
Related

  • The Donner Party and the American Character

    519 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Donner Party Tragedy

    2570 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the early 1900s, the United States had an increase of settlers leaving their hometowns to the west in the faith of being able to live in a more catholic freedom world, others also joined by the inspiration of Manifest Destiny, a thought in which the Americans thought that everything between the Atlantic and the Pacific ocean is theirs and should therefore settled by them. A group, that was on the way to the western U.S., for those reasons in 1846, had a tragic loss of 34 settlers due to many tragic events. This group was led by George Donner, which was elected the leader of this group on 19 July 1846, this group inherited his name, called the Donner Party. The Donner Party consisted of the families of George Donner, his brother Jacob and James F. Reed of Springfield, Illinois, and a few hired workers, a total of 87 persons. Most groups usually followed the Oregon Trail, which brought them from East to West within 4 to 6 months. But then a guide called 'The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California' was released by Lansword Hasting, a lawyer who thought he has to remigrate Americans to California, this guide would lead them through a shorter way to the west, but was never traveled by anyone for this purpose, not even by himself. In the following, the diaries of the Donner Party will be cited and combined with the information known about the situations.

    Read More

  • How Did The Donner Party Lead To Tragedy

    2104 Words  | 5 Pages

    Poverty-stricken emigrants floated around America. In the East and Midwest, people had nothing. There were no jobs, no homes, and no money. But in the West, they had everything. California and Oregon were full of riches and opportunity; anyone could succeed there. So desperate pioneers sacrificed their livelihoods to move westward, and the Donner Party was no exception. The group of ninety travelled to Utah, only to have the cruel wrath of nature ruin their destiny when crossing into California. Forty-eight died during the winter of 1846 in the Sierra Nevada, an anomaly to the expected success of western travel. The Donner Party exemplifies how assumptions of mass prosperity can lead to tragedy.

    Read More

  • Territorial Expansion Of The Civil War Essay

    687 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the early nineteenth century, most Northerners and Southerners agreed entirely that Americans should settle Western territories, and that it was God’s plan, or their “manifest destiny.” Northerners and Southerners who moved west were in search of a better life and personal economic gain; were they had failed before in the east, they believed they would do better in the west. The Panic of 1837 was a motivation to head

    Read More

  • Tensions Rise between U.S and Mexico

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...rmy moved westward they were walking the path that the Navajos, Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches had already traveled in the last decade, making it easier for the U.S to defeat Mexico in 1847.

    Read More

  • Westward Expansion Research Paper

    1114 Words  | 3 Pages

    “By 1840 almost 7 million Americans had migrated westward in hopes of securing land and being prosperous” (Westward Expansion Facts). Westward Expansion Facts -. N.p., n.d. Web. & n.d. 16 Sept. 2016). This movement is called Western Expansion. The movement brought new beginnings and hope to many northerners and southerners.

    Read More

  • California Gold Rush

    1490 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1839 a man by the name of John Sutter arrived in California. Sutter appeared to be somewhat of a drifter, and had failed to establish himself before arriving in California. However, in the land of great promise, he planned to establish an empire for himself. Sutter was granted eleven square leagues, or 50, 000 acres, in the lower Sacramento area. This was a common land grant for the times. Sutter got to work and began to improve his land. He went on to build a fort, accumulated over 12,000 cattle and hired hundreds of workers to hel...

    Read More

  • The California Gold Rush in 1849

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    The California Gold Rush in 1849 was the catalyst event for the state that earned them a spot in the U.S. union in 1850. This was not the first gold rush in North America; however, it was one of the most important gold rush events. The story of how the gold was discovered and the stories of the 49ers are well known. Men leaving their families in the East and heading West in hopes of striking it rich are the stories that most of us heard about when we learn about the California Gold Rush. Professors and scholars over the last two decades from various fields of study have taken a deeper look into the Gold Rush phenomena. When California joined the Union in 1850 it helped the U.S. expand westward just as most Americans had intended to do. The event of the Gold Rush can be viewed as important because it led to a national railroad. It also provided the correct circumstances for successful entrepreneurship, capitalism, and the development modern industrialization. The event also had a major influence on agriculture, economics, and politics.

    Read More

  • DBQ on Western Front

    787 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many Americans packed few belongings and headed west during the middle to the late nineteenth century. It was during this time period that the idea of manifest destiny became rooted in American customs and ideals. Manifest Destiny is the idea that supported and justified expansionist policies, it declared that expansion was both necessary and right. America’s expansionist attitudes were prominent during the debate over the territorial rights of the Oregon territory. America wanted to claim the Oregon territory as its own, but Great Britain would not allow that. Eventually the two nations came to an agreement and a compromise was reached, as seen in document B. The first major party of settlers that traveled to the west settled in Oregon.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Symbolism Essay

    873 Words  | 2 Pages

    The symbols that encompass the novel underscore the theme that the American Dream, corrupt and unjust, eventually concludes in anguish. Money, greed, and lust overtake everything in their lives to the point of nothing else being of importance. The characters in this novel lost themselves to a fruitless dream that eventually brought and end to the “holocaust” that embodied their lives (162).

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby - Dreams of Happiness

    1685 Words  | 4 Pages

    The American Dream seems almost non-existent to those who haven’t already achieved it. Every character in the novel has moments of feeling happy and endures a moment where they believe that they are about to achieve their dreams. Naturally everyone dreams of being a better person, having better things and in 1920’s America, the scheme of getting rich is quick. However, each character had their dreams crushed in the novel mainly because of social and economic situations and their dream of happiness becomes a ‘dead dream’ leading them back to their ‘shallow lives’ or no life at all.

    Read More

  • Words And Pathos In Margaret Atwood's Letter To America

    1349 Words  | 3 Pages

    Present day America is going downhill, due to changes in government and lifestyle. America is no longer the place it once was. Globally, the American people are known for being lazy and obese, whereas we once were known for our determination, work ethic, and great power. American citizens are now scared of the government, and their frequent actions that are beginning to take place, such as taking citizens rights away or searching their mail. If America continues to follow down this path, we will fall like the Roman Empire. Margaret Atwood in “Letter to America” uses allusions, audience, pathos, and the context of the article in attempt to motivate America to make a change, because she does not like the way that America is currently changing.

    Read More

  • American Exceptionalism Essay

    1105 Words  | 3 Pages

    The native’s attitude towards pilgrims, the original laissez faire attitude of the British government towards colonies, and the French attacks during the revolution are all examples of such events. Such events in turn display how continuous effort trough hardship is indeed rewarded by destiny; a destiny often seen by many to be America’s role as the greatest nation on the world. Such belief both contradicts and emphasizes Crevecoeurs utopian society as seen by James C. Mohr in “Calculated Disillusionment: Crèvecoeur 's Letters Reconsidered”. The lines, “America 's destiny is to carry forward the highest ideals and achievements of those previous civilizations, even though their complete realization will certainly be impossible. The "new man," this American, is a person either foolish enough or heroic enough to try to pursue such a destiny.” (Mohr 4), display such belief of America’s destiny to become the peak of civilization and pursue the impossible utopia. This journey can be seen as the Jeffersonian pursuit of happiness also seen during this time period in which the average joe can, trough effort, achieve a dream. This hope given to citizens is a driving force for the same to believe they should give the rest of the world the same opportunity and allow them to achieve their

    Read More

  • What Happened To The Donner Party

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Donner Party had a total of 89 members which included men, women and children. They entered the Sierra Nevada Mountains in October of 1846, which was very late for traveling in the pioneer era. Brothers Jacob and George Donner attempted to take a supposedly new and shorter route through the mountains (Dowd). How was it possible that a few people’s decision affected the lives of so many, forcing them to experience such horrific and life changing events, resulting in them making unimaginable decisions.

    Read More

  • American Dream in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

    1881 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...an philosopher. "And the west, encumbered by crippling alliances, and burdened with a morality too rigid to accommodate itself to the swing of events, must… eventually… fall." (174) Albee suggests that, behind the façade of the American dream, behind the pretense of American ideals, behind the false front of the tranquility of American society in the early 60's, America's internal corruption and emptiness threatened, and perhaps continue to threaten, the country with a similar fall.

    Read More

More about The Donner Party

Open Document