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Migration and Settlement of the American West

Page history last edited by Mr. Hengsterman 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Bloody Footprints - Migration and Settlement of the American West [1860 to 1890]

A march pioneers propelled by a lust for land and a passion for profit pushes settlers to overcome all

obstacles to secure their vision of freedom and opportunity amid the ostensibly limitless frontier.

This is the land west of the Mississippi river, it contains remarkable geographic extremes: majestic mountains, roaring rivers, searing deserts and dense forests.

The great epics of Civil War and Reconstruction were remote events hardly touching the lives of the Indians, Mexicans, Asians, trappers, miners and Mormons scattered through the plain and mountains. Here the march of settlement and exploitation continued propelled by a lust for land and a passion for profit. The settlement or exploitation consisted of pioneers in search for gold in places like California and settlers overcoming all obstacles to secure their vision of freedom and opportunity amid the regions awesome vastness.

Western Settlement by the numbers:

1% of the population lived west of the Mississippi in 1850, by 1900 nearly 30% of the population lived there

It took 263 years to settle the first 400 million acres; 30 years to settle the second 400 million acres

1870-1890 3 million people make the trek west, including 2.2 million immigrants; 3x as much land west of the Mississippi is being cultivated

Phase I Migration and Settlement (1800-1860)

American free holders settling the plains = the image of the Wild Wild West.

Pull Factors - Why do settlers migrate west? It is about..... MAPping out the west....

The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 " An Act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes."

Homestead Act (1862)
Encouraged settlers to migrate west from the East coast and Europe (basically free land of 160-acre sections); Tough life for settlers on woodless plains (sod houses)

By 1900 b/t 400,000 –600,000 families h

migrated west.

By 1880 44% of settlers in Nebraska and 70% on Minnesota and Wisconsin were immigrants

Women's POV: The Homestead Act of 1862 gave single women a pathway to landownership. Homesteading women created an atmosphere where ideas about women’s rights could flourish. Historians have long acknowledged that the Homestead Act of 1862, as one of the most substantial and influential acts ever passed by Congress. This new research shows how women homesteaders impacted the women's suffrage movement.

Native American POV: Under the Homestead Act, 1 .5 million homesteads were granted to settlers west of the Mississippi, comprising nearly three hundred million acres (a half-million square miles) taken from the Indigenous collective estates and privatized for the market.

Labor Movement POV: This dispersal of landless settler populations from east of the Mississippi served as an "escape valve," lessening the likelihood of class conflict as the industrial revolution accelerated the use of cheap immigrant labor.

Additional Images of Homesteading and the Great American West and Homesteader Diary

Exodusters (1879)

Name given to African Americans who migrated from states along the Mississippi River to Kansas in the late nineteenth century, as part of the Exoduster Movement or Exodus of 1879. It was the first general migration of blacks following the Civil War.

Once again, Americans have become rugged individuals because of our experience settling the west. Remember this is our Manifest Destiny !!!

Although Oklahoma was originally part of Indian territory, in the late 1800’s the government opened some of the land to non-Indian settlers. This photograph shows an actual “run.” This land rush led to dispossession of Native Americans and the increase of white land claims. In less than 24 hours 2 million acres settled

Oklahoma Land Rush
September 16, 1893

What do you see in this Progress Paradox?

"[Buffalo hunters] have done more in the last two years, and will do more in the next year, to settle the...Indian question than the entire regular army has done in the last thirty years....For the sake of peace let them kill, skin, and sell until the buffalo are destroyed."
—General Philip Sheridan

Phase II - Exploitation and Consolidation (1870s -1880s) The role of the federal government in homesteading; the consolidation in mining and the creation of large bonanza farms

Speaker A: Nature should be left as it is found. All unsettled land should be off limits to future settlement or development.

Speaker B: Natural resources should be controlled by big business to ensure the economic strength of the United States. Our abundance of land gives us a great advantage for competing in world markets.

Speaker C: The natural resources of the United States should be used wisely. We must conserve them for future generations while also using them to serve the people of today.

Speaker D: No man or institution owns the land. It is to be shared by everyone and everything in the best interest of all who depend upon its offerings.