Transcript File - Mrs. Davies U.S. History

Manifest Destiny
manifest: clear or obvious
destiny: future or fate
John Gast, American Progress, 1872
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Map of the United States, 1872
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Contemporary Map of the 1816
United States
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John Melish, Map of the U.S. with the contiguous
British and Spanish Possessions,1816
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Melish’s comments on his 1816
map of the United States
To present the country this way was desirable . . .
The map shows at a glance the whole extent of the
United States territory from sea to sea.
In tracing the probable expansion of the human
race from east to west, the mind finds an agreeable
resting place on its western limits. The view is
complete and leaves nothing to be wished for. It
also adds to the beauty and symmetry of the map.
Source: John Melish. Map of the United States with the contiguous British
and Spanish Possessions. Philadelphia, 1816.
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Lewis and Clark – Beaver $$$$$
• Fashion of the day – Beaver felt hats!
Pelts 1.5 to 3 pounds;
• Quality of pelt $3 to $6 a pound
• Average pelt - $10 = $120 to $150 TODAY
• Best quality late winter, early spring, and
then stretch and dry late spring and trade
in the summer when you could get to
market in St. Louis
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Mountain Men and Fur Traders
and Companies
• Hudson Bay: 1670 to present day, scorch
stream policy, Flathead Post, Fort Boise
• Northwest Co.: Fort Vancouver, Oregon
Country 1790 bought by Hudson Bay
• Missouri Fur Co: Manuel Lisa owner 1807
(John Colter)
• Free trapper – independent, dangerous,
sold to anyone;
• Company Trappers – sold only to company
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Manifest Destiny – get your people
on the land and take it!
• American Fur Co.: John Jacob Astor –
Astorians, Fort Astoria, 3 point Trade
between Asia, Europe, USA - Tonquin
sank War of 1812
• Ashley and Henry Co: 1822, Most
Americans Rendezvous system!: Jed
Smith (South Pass – published 1824 a wagon route
across the Continental Divide) fixed maps, found
trails; Jim Beckworth, Joe Walker, Jim
Bridger, Hugh Glass, Kit Carson
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Ashley and Henry’s Men
• Jed Smith – trail blazer, traveled length
and breadth of Utah and West – first to
cross Mojave and Great Basin looking for
Mierra’s mythical rivers
• Hugh Glass – story of remarkable will to
live after grizzly attack
• James Beckworth – VA slave who found
pass through Sierra Nevada Mntns to get
wagons into California – Crow chief
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Rendezvous – keep men in the
mountains!
St Louis price compared to Mountain price
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Alcohol – 15 cents gallon vs $5 a pint
Coffee – 15 cents pound vs $2 pound
Cloth 14 cents yard vs $10 yard
Flour 2 cents a pound vs $2
Lead – 6 cents a pound vs $2
Gunpowder – 7 cents a pound vs $2
Paid with beaver pelts which were bought for $2 to
$4 per pelt not by the pound!
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1840 – silk hat replaced fashion
• Fur Companies ended – Hudson Bay
Company only remained
• Mountain Men – returned to civilization
or became guides for military or home
seekers bound for Oregon or California
• Trails West - Oregon, California, Santa
Fe, Mormon, Old Spanish Trail
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Oregon Trail - 1836
• Narcissus Whitman and Eliza
Spalding are the first white
women travel overland to
Oregon. – Set up a mission to the
Cayuse along the Snake and
Columbia confluence, attacked by
Indians after a measles outbreak
in 1847 – Sager Children there!
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Emigrants
• Leave in May, don’t stall, travel light,
disease and accidents kill!
• Prairie library and Roadside telegraphs
• Let’s take Oregon and not share it – “54-40
or Fight” – James K. Polk was one of
Andrew Jackson’s favorites who got elected
on a manifest destiny platform – willing to
go to war over land
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Get your people on the land with
the hope of gaining land or $.
• Fur trade
• Land in Oregon and California
• Land in Texas and slaves to grow
cotton
• Gold and silver strikes
• Homesteads!
• Just kick the Native Americans off the
land
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