Unit 4: Antebellum America History 4-8: Going West

Americans Head West Few gave thought to how manifest destiny would affect native peoples. Mountain men went west to trap and trade. Missionaries hoped to convert Native Americans to Christianity. Lumberjacks and miners went to capitalize on timber and minerals. Farmers moved west to farm vast, rich lands. Entrepreneurs made their way to California. Americans believed in manifest destiny, the idea that the nation had a God-given right to all of North America.

People traveled West on wagon roads, and on the railroad and by steamship.

Who Moved West? European settlers Lured by economic opportunity, they came from Scandinavia, Ireland, Russia, and Germany. They brought their farming experience with them. Chinese settlers Initially came for the gold rush or to build railroads They turned to farming, especially in California, establishing the fruit industry there. Most Chinese were farm laborers because they were not allowed to own land. White settlers Middle-class businesspeople or farmers from the Mississippi Valley moved west. They could afford money for supplies and transportation. African American settlers Benjamin Singleton urged his own people to build communities. Some fled the violent South. Rumors of land in Kansas brought 15,000 Exodusters who also settled in Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois.

News from Sutter’s Mill In 1848 gold was discovered in the American River at John Sutter’s sawmill in northern California. When the news reached the United States, most considered it a rumor. President James K. Polk announced the gold discovery in his State of the Union address on December 5, Newspapers across the country carried the story, and thousands of Americans caught “gold fever.”

Gold Rush People who moved west to mine gold are called miners. Immigrants, such as Mexicans, Chinese and the Irish, went to work in the mines. Immigrants were treated poorly with long hours, low pay and very dangerous work.

Gold and Silver Strikes The people who left for California in 1849 were called forty- niners

The Gold Rush California gold The gold rush was a mass migration of miners and people who made money off the miners to California. Golden dreams brought people from around the world, but 80 percent of them came from the United States. Getting there By land following the California Trail Sailing around the southern tip of South America or south to Panama, crossing Central America by mule train, and then sailing north to California By 1854 as many as 300,000 people had migrated to California.

Gold and silver mines were discovered throughout the West. Thousands of miners from the U.S., Europe, Mexico, and China flocked to the West. White and Chinese miners hoping to strike it rich during the California Gold Rush at Auburn Ravine in Chinese miners working an abandoned tailing.

Boomtowns - towns that grew up near major mining sites · Some boom towns developed into cities, such as Denver, CO, and Reno, NV. Reno, Nevada c.1868 Many of these new towns became abandoned ghost towns when the gold rush ended.

Mexican and Chinese miners faced severe discrimination. Tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants came to San Francisco, California, in the 1850s to participate in the gold rush. However, anti- Chinese racial prejudices among miners grew in the midst of the gold frenzy. Further anti-Chinese sentiment hampered economic prospects as Chinese miners were only allowed to work on sites abandoned by white miners.

The Cattle Boom Growing populations in the East needed food. The age of the cattle drive had arrived. Cowboys drove the cattle to towns with railroads to be shipped to meatpacking centers such as Chicago. One of the most famous cattle trails was the Chisholm Trail. Origins of ranching The Spanish were the first ranchers in the West, raising cattle under dry and difficult conditions. They bred the hardy Texas longhorn and started sheep ranching. Grazing lands were needed for both. Demand for beef Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire, allowing ranchers to enclose grazing lands. Privately owned ranches spread quickly, and investors transformed the cattle business into big business. Two years of severe winters brought huge losses to the industry. Ranching as big business

Incentives for Settlement New legislation –In 1862, Congress passed three acts to turn public lands into private property. The Homestead Act gave 160 acres of land to heads of household. The Pacific Railway Act gave land to the railroad companies to build lines. The Morrill Act gave lands to states for colleges for agriculture and the mechanic arts.