THE FRONTIER: THE FRONTIER 1600-1890


Slide2: Timeline 1600s on Fur trade becomes active on the coast of Maine Late 1700s The entire North American continent from the Atlantic to the Mississippi was growing with settlers 1800 The secret Treaty of San Ildefonso transfers the Louisiana Territory from Spain back to France. 1802   Jefferson sends Lewis and Clark to explore the Missouri River and on to the Pacific 1803 President Thomas Jefferson purchases the Louisiana Territory 1808 John Jacob Astor forms the American Fur Company to compete with the North West Company of Canada in the northern Plains. 1812 United States and Great Britain clash in the War of 1812. 1813 The South Pass that will become part of the Oregon Trail is discovered. The United States and Great Britain conclude a treaty ending the War of 1812. 1825 First American railroad is completed in Quincy, Massachusetts. 1828  Andrew Jackson is elected President 1830 Indian Removal Act signed by President Jackson - grants authority to move Eastern Indians to  Western lands.  1831  Cherokee Nation v. Georgia - the Supreme Court rules against the Cherokees; the Cherokees are trying to prevent Georgia from applying its laws in Indian territory where gold has recently  been discovered. Court rules that Cherokees are "domestic dependents" and cannot sue in  Federal courts. 1836    Martin Van Buren is elected President - he runs on the Democratic ticket and agrees to follow  Jackson’s policies 1845 The term, "Manifest Destiny," appears for the first time 1845    Texas joins the Union as the twenty-eight state 1846   Congress approves a declaration of war with Mexico


Slide3: Timeline 1847    The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ends war with Mexico. The U.S. gains land including  present day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. 1862    The Homestead Act is passed. 1865    The frontier city of Chicago opens its Union stockyards. The refrigerated train car is invented and Chicago’s meat market booms. 1869    The first Transcontinental Railroad is completed. The Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads meet in Promontory, Utah. 1870    The Standard Oil Company of Ohio is incorporated in Cleveland. It is the beginning of Rockefeller’s great oil ventures.  1871    The Credit Mobilier scandal 1874    Joseph Glidden invents barbed wire. Affects the cowboys 1874     Between the years of 1872 and 1874, the buffalo are hunted to near extinction. 1876 General Armstrong Custer is defeated by Chief Crazy Horse. The Sioux are squeezed into reservations by 1877. 1879    When California adopts a new constitution, a clause is inserted and accepted which forbids employment of any Chinese laborers 1887    The Dawes Severalty Act is passed by Congress. It provides for 160 acres to be given individually to each Indian family.  1889    North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington are all admitted to statehood.  1890    From 1800 up until this point the population of the U.S. has grown from 5 million to over 50 million 1891    For the first the U.S. census declares that the frontier is no longer discernable 1892    Congress passes the Forest Reserve Act 1893    John Muir founds the Sierra Club 1894    Fredrick Jackson Turner presents his Frontier theses.               


Slide4: The Ever-Moving Frontier What is it? The frontier regions of America shifted farther and farther West from New England to California. Who was involved? The frontier involved was an expansion lead by Europeans, Americans and African Americans who settled the land—and the Native Americans who lost their land in the process. What was their goal? But they seemed to have one idea in common: that a better world lay over the next horizon. So they pushed and pushed westward until the frontier was conquered and a modern nation rose from its bounty.


Slide5: Changing places of the ‘ever-moving frontier’ The Appalachian Frontier Conquered in the late eighteenth century, the entire North American continent from the Atlantic to the Mississippi was growing with settlers. The Louisiana Purchase By 1803 President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. This purchase was said to be one of the biggest steps in expansion of the frontier. Manifest Destiny Manifest Destiny was a term used in the 1840s to justify the United States' westward expansion into such areas as Texas, Oregon and California. There was a widely held underlying belief that Americans, the chosen people, had a divinely inspired mission to spread the fruits of their democracy to the less fortunate (usually meaning Native Americans and other non-Europeans).


Slide6: Changing places of the ‘ever-moving frontier’ cont… Filling in the Borders In 1846 the United States went to war with Mexico. At issue were the California and New Mexico Territories. The Big Country Between 1800 and 1880 the population of the United States grew from 5 million to over 50 million. Appalachian Life The backwoodsmen and women had no use for the rules and regulations of East Coast society. They hacked out clearings with their axes and built log cabins to live in.


Slide7: The Trailblazers The men who lead the way... Daniel Boone, the Trailblazer Daniel Boone was one of the earliest Americans to venture into the unknown lands. Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Appalachian Mountains were filling up with thousands of pioneers. But there were new horizons to explore. Life in the Corps of Discovery was a mixture of wonder and hardship. The Mountain Men Open the Rockies to California In 1806, en route back to civilization, Lewis and Clark encountered two men heading up the Missouri River to trap beaver in Yellowstone, inadvertently opening up to California.


Slide8: The Trailblazers cont... The Walker Party and the Native Americans Walker followed the example set by Lewis and Clark. Walking west in Nevada the Walker party came to the unbroken mass of the Sierra Nevada. The granite wall stretched north-south for four hundred miles. Lewis and Clark and the Native Americans After exploring the Louisiana Territory for three months, Lewis and Clark met up with the first of many Native Americans who lived in the area. Suffering Along the Trail Most trailblazers were ordinary men who undertook extraordinary adventures. Many of these revolutionary men went through incredible hardships to make their discoveries. Many died trying.


Slide9: Fur Trappers Ever since the 1600’s, fur trading became active on the coast of Maine French voyageurs in the 1700’s were fur traders along the Mississippi After Lewis and Clark expedition, beaver trade developed around Missouri River America Fur Company founded in 1808 by John Jacob Astor Beaver trade was huge…that is until all us beavers were killed. Then everyone just moved west.


Slide10: Native American Removal Reasons to Expand Appalachians to Mississippi- white settlement South- cotton North- grain To Pacific Ocean- expansion, immigration, canals, railroads, new cities, continental empire, Manifest Destiny


Slide11: … in Jeffersonian Times By 1800, there were 700,000 white settlers west of the Appalachians Jefferson supported removal of the Creek and Cherokee from Georgia Gov. William Henry Harrison was aggressing toward Indians in the Indiana Territory After Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson proposed to Congress that Native Americans be encouraged to abandon their nomadic way of life to settle down with little land to farm- assimilation begins Why do they need to be moving all the time anyway?


Slide12: …in War of 1812 War of expansion and taking of Indian land Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief, tried to unite the Indians 1813- massacre at Fort Mims by Creek warriors Jackson burned down Creek village and killed men, women, and children in retaliation 1814- Battle of Horseshoe Bend: pitted the Cherokees against the Creeks by promising friendship; Jackson became national hero afterwards After war ended, Jackson as treaty commissioner took away half of the Creek nation


Slide13: …in Jacksonian times Try to “civilize” the Indians (e.g. The Society of Propagating the Gospel Among Indians, 1787) Although many tribes resisted the new culture, some welcomed it Cherokees in Georgia settled in agriculture Jackson argued for a preservation of the Native American culture Proposed to remove the eastern tribes: Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles to west of Mississippi


Slide14: …in Jacksonian times 1830- Indian Removal Act passed Countless died on the trip across, notably about 4,000 Cherokee on the Trail of Tears 1836- Bureau of Indian Affairs established to better relations Treaties ignored as settlers charged in Seminoles waged a seven year guerrilla war in the Everglades before moved to Oklahoma


Slide15: Indian Removal cont. General Sherman, Sheridan, and Custer led soldiers into Indian territory Apache, led by well-know Geronimo, forced into Mexico A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson (1881) showed the plight of the Indians and inspired sympathy Dawes Severalty Act of 1887- forced Indians onto reservations and assimilate 1890- Battle of Wounded Knee: massacre of Dakota Sioux


Slide16: More Indian Removal From 1814-1824, whites took over land in Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, and North Carolina Seminole War of 1818, played a role in later acquisition of Florida Tried to break up the tribes; fight for hunting grounds (e.g. Sioux aggression) Treaties made at Fort Laramie (1851) and Fort Atkinson (1853) started reservation system Immense warfare from 1868-1890


Slide17: Mountain Men •Earliest whites that had followed Lewis and Clark, explored Native American trails, and trapped for furs. •Had annual trades with Native Americans in the Rockies in 1820’s •Leading mountain men: James Beckwourth, Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, and Jedediah Smith •Served as guides and pathfinders for settlers crossing mountains to reach California and Oregon in 1840’s Lewis and Clark were French 


Slide18: The Gold Rush Begins In the early 1840s John Sutter, a wealthy immigrant, was building his own private agricultural empire in California James Marshall, one of Sutter’s employees, discovered gold by the American River in 1848 Sutter and Marshall decided to keep the gold a secret because it would interfere with Sutter’s agricultural fiefdom so although there were rumors Sam Brannan kicked the Gold Rush into motion by running through the streets of San Francisco brandishing gold dust and yelling about Marshall’s discovery The Gold Rush made Brannan rich because of the profits he made selling shovels, pickaxes, and pans to miners Sutter Marshall Brannan


Slide19: Journey to California At first there were only two choices: the six month journey around South America or the 2,000 mile walk across America A shortcut through Panama was soon developed Malaria and Cholera were common and there were few ships to ferry miners up to San Francisco Americans in the central states could take the severe Oregon-California Trail Was much shorter than the sea route but not faster


Slide20: Miners and Forty-Niners Miners and Forty-Niners are basically the same thing – Men (or women) who traveled to California during the gold rush in 1849 The miner’s life was a hard one – plagued by cholera, pneumonia, dysentery, exhaustion, homesickness, repeated hard luck in the claims Miners were not bound by the laws of Mexico or the laws of the states and held meetings to judge an accused with the objective of freeing him as soon as possible Gold Rush 1948-1952


Slide21: Miners and Forty-Niners IMPACT The state became a land characterized by an essential selfishness and an underlying instability because its recently arrived inhabitants were so focused on getting rich quick A great number of Europeans also began to affect Americans in matters of value and lifestyle, at least in the cities Most significant, however, was the lasting influence of a large population who transferred industrial technology, architecture, political systems, educational systems, and cultural values


Slide22: Railroads The North and South were deadlocked over the control of the railroads until, in 1850, the South succeeded and the North gained control Building did not begin in earnest until 1865, at the end of the Civil War There was great urgency in the building of the railroads because people wanted to bond the broken Union together, especially gold-rich California The Union Pacific Railroad was commissioned by Congress, and received large sums of money and land to lay track across the country


Slide23: Railroads The Central Pacific Railroad laid track from the California end and met with the Union Pacific Railroad in the middle (also receiving government subsidies) The main employees of the Central Pacific Railroad were the Chinese who were cheap, efficient, docile, and expendable The two construction companies were operated by the Big Four, including Leland Sanford and Collis Huntington After this first transcontinental railroad, four more were built: the Northern Pacific, the Southern Pacific, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, and finally the Great Northern built by John J. Hill


Slide24: Railroads VANDERBILT Cornelius Vanderbilt made a fortune by offering superior railway service at lower rates Created the New York Central line by expanding and wielding older railroads together Contributed 2 improvements to the railroad 1. Steel rails 2. A standard gauge of track width


Slide25: Railroads RAILROAD CORRUPTION Crédit Mobilier – a fake construction company that allowed insiders to reap enormous profit from the Union Pacific Railroad while bribing congress to look the other way Jay Gould – one of the most adept at taking advantage of the railroads – played with the stocks of major railroad companies Vanderbilt – frequently trampled public interest underfoot Railroaders would bribe officials, employ lobbyists, elect into high office their own people and form alliances to dominate the field to combat the railroads the U.S. government passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 and set up the Interstate Commerce Commission


Slide26: Railroads IMPACT The railroads provided an enormous market for American raw materials and manufactured goods and, more than any other single factor, contributed to the industrialization of America following the Civil War Stimulated immigration, the steel, mining, and agricultural industries, and played a major role in the cityward movement at the end of the century Until the railroads every town in America had its own local time – in 1883 the major lines decided that the U.S. would be split into 4 different time zones


Slide27: Cowboys Cowboys are one of the most romantic figures of the Old West. However much of their history is myth entwined with fact. Fifty years before the beef business sprang up out of the prairie grasses, the first cowboys lived in Spanish California The annexation of Texas and the end of the Civil war both gave rise to the “American” cowboy The West was a place far from governmental control: Frontier towns were rough and tumble places where cowboys let off steam. But they were also a magnet for gamblers, swindlers, and outlaws


Slide28: Cowboys Cowboys are one of the most romantic figures of the Old West. However much of their history is myth entwined with fact. Many cowboys found work on the Long Drive which took place in the 1880's in the Western plain states: Cowboys would round up a lot of cattle and "drive" them to areas near railroad stations This was when the Meat Packaging Industry first really sprung up Along with the MPI came “Beef Barons” like the Swifts and Armours


Slide29: Cowboys Cowboys are one of the most romantic figures of the Old West. However much of their history is myth entwined with fact. But as transcontinental railroads continued to develop the Age of the Cowboy started to die By around 1890 cowboys were few and far but they would live on in romanticized stories and songs


Slide30: Pioneers and Sodbusters The Pioneers of the mid-1800s were the last to close the final frontier of the far-West. The areas first tracked by trappers and trailblazers began to attract farmers and families and other pioneers by the 1840s. The Oregon Trail was originally blazed in 1841 In 1844 James Polk and Democrats advocated “Manifest Destiny,” a concept that stated that the U.S. was destined to expand across the continent and get as much land as possible. That’s right pioneers: we must extend the "boundaries of freedom" to the Indians by imparting our idealism and belief in democratic institutions! So move west!


Slide31: Pioneers and Sodbusters The Pioneers of the mid-1800s were the last to close the final frontier of the far-West. WHY? 1. The United States suffered two economic depressions: one in 1818 and another in 1839. These crises drove some people to seek their living in frontier areas. 2. Frontier land was inexpensive or, in some cases, free. 3. Expansion into frontier areas opened opportunities for new commerce and individual self-advancement. 4. Land ownership was associated with wealth and tied to self-sufficiency, political power and independent "self-rule."


Slide32: Pioneers and Sodbusters The Pioneers of the mid-1800s were the last to close the final frontier of the far-West. The Great West experienced a population surge, as many people moved onto the frontier: new states like Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming were admitted into the Union. In the late 1870s, life on the prairie began to change dramatically. New farming machines began to make pioneer life more productive than ever before In Oklahoma, the U.S. government made available land that had formerly belonged to the Native Americans, and thousands of “sooners” jumped the boundary line and illegally went into Oklahoma, often forcing U.S. troops to evict them.


Slide33: Farewell to the Frontier In 1890, for the first time, the U.S. census announced that a frontier was no longer discernible. The “closing” of the frontier inspired the Turner Thesis and a conservation movement. THE TURNER THESIS In 1893 Fredrick Jackson Turner presented his thesis that the frontier past best explained the distinctive history of the United States and certain American traits such as democracy and materialism. He also proposed the idea of the frontier as a “safety valve” Although “The mainstream of the profession has long since discarded Turner's assumption that the frontier is the key to American history as a whole; they point instead to the critical influence of such factors as slavery and the Civil War, immigration, and the development of industrial capitalism” (PBS) the finer points of FJT’s thesis are hotly debated by many scholars.


Slide34: Farewell to the Frontier In 1890, for the first time, the U.S. census announced that a frontier was no longer discernible. The “closing” of the frontier inspired the Turner Thesis and a conservation movement. THE CONSERVATION MOVEMENT As Americans began to realize that land was not infinite they began to take several conservation measures: The first national park was opened: Yellowstone, (1872), followed by Yosemite and Sequoia (1890). In 1891 Congress passes the Forest Reserve Act In 1892, John Muir founds the Sierra Club, In 1898 Gifford Pinchot is appointed chief of the Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture; begins crusade to convert the public and forest industry to support for scientific forest management.


Slide35: Key Terms Lewis and Clark expedition America Fur Company Appalachians Jefferson Creek Cherokee Louisiana Purchase Tecumseh Battle of Horseshoe Bend Indian Removal Act Bureau of Indian Affairs Geronimo James Polk Manifest Destiny Manifest Destiny Daniel Boone A Century of Dishonor Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 Battle of Wounded Knee Mountain men Gold Rush John Sutter Fredrick Jackson Turner Safety valve James Marshall Sam Brannan Oregon-California trail Miners Ever-moving frontier Trailblazers The Appalachian Frontier The Louisiana Purchase Forty-niners Union Pacific Railroad Central Pacific Railroad Big Four Cornelius Vanderbilt Crédit Mobilier   Jay Gould   Interstate Commerce Act   Interstate Commerce Commission Long Drive Meat Packaging Industry Beef Barons Trailblazers Mountain Men Walker Party  


Slide36: Potential DBQ QUESTION: In the light of the following documents and your knowledge of the period between 1775-1825, discuss the effects of the early westward movement on the new American nation.


Slide37: Potential DBQ DOCUMENT A


Slide38: Potential DBQ DOCUMENT B


Slide39: Potential DBQ DOCUMENT C


Slide40: Potential DBQ DOCUMENT D


Slide41: Potential DBQ DOCUMENT E


Slide42: Potential DBQ DOCUMENT F


Slide43: Potential DBQ DOCUMENT G US Population 1790-1830


Slide44: Potential DBQ DOCUMENT H


Slide45: Potential DBQ DOCUMENT I


Slide46: Potential DBQ DOCUMENT J


Slide47: WORKS CITED American Frontier (Way of Life). Book Rags. 22 Apr. 2005 . Bailey, Thomas A., and David M. Kennedy. The American Pageant. Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1994. 1-1037. Breschini, Ph.D. , Gary S., and MaryEllen Ryan. Influence of the Gold Rush. 2000. 23 Apr. 2005 . Czajka, Christopher K. Homestead History. PBS. 22 Apr. 2005 . Documentary Chronology of Selected Events in the Development of the American Conservation Movement, 1847- 1920. The Library of Congress. 22 Apr. 2005. Frederick Jackson Turner. PBS. 22 Apr. 2005 . Hittel, Theodore H. The Gold Discovery. 1897. 23 Apr. 2005. . Isern, DR.. The Turner Theses. University of Virginia. 22 Apr. 2005 .


Slide48: WORKS CITED cont… Manifest Destiny. PBS. 22 Apr. 2005 . The Gold Rushes of North America. 17 Apr. 2005. Calliope Film Resources. 22 Apr. 2005 . Transcontinental Railroad. 1999. Back to American Western History Museums. 22 Apr. 2005 .