Jackson Turner Frontier

886 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: THE MYTH OF THE FRONTIER

The Role of the Frontier The western frontier was a vast land, with very limited European life during the time before it was “opened” for settlement. The western frontier was opened with the passing of the Homestead Law, which granted free or reduced priced land to the settlers. The frontier became not merely a variety of new settlement, but a place of new beginnings with abundant hardship to be overcome, a land of opportunity, and a new American way of life. Upon the closing of the frontier, Fredrick Jackson Turner wrote a letter to the American Historical Society giving praise to the frontier for the aforementioned role in American history, by presenting the frontier as an important role in influencing the American way of life and the …show more content…

The frontier was a vast wilderness, harsh in addition to unforgiving. Fredrick Jackson Turner wrote in his address to the American Historical Association, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”, that “In short, at the frontier the environment is at first too strong for the man” (Turner 1134). The colonist had numerous challenges to face, various things to forget, and more than a few things that they were required to learn fresh techniques for, in lieu of materials and technologies that were a part of their life before they moved to the frontier. “It strips off the garments of civilization and arrays him in the hunting shirt and the moccasin. It puts him in the log cabin of the Cherokee and Iroquois and runs an Indian palisade around him” (Turner 1134). The settlers went from a modern people to a more primitive people just by moving west to the frontier. In addition, there was little to no influence from the Atlantic area colonists. The ability to adapt and overcome was fundamental toward surviving on the frontier. This harsh time of regeneration on the frontier was truly a time to forget the past and to move forward into the future with a new definition of progress for the American way of …show more content…

Furthermore this area became an innovative and hard-working portion of America, in that many chose farming as a new beginning. Many people flocked to the frontier to have their own piece of America, and many failed due to the hardships on the way. “The fact is, that here is a new product that is America”(Turner 1135). This vast new land brought people of different race and ethnic backgrounds together to form new products and ideas in addition to regeneration of an innovative way of life for part of what America is now. In short, this time on the frontier stood as an accurate building block of the American people as we know it today. “The true point of view in the History of this nation is not the Atlantic coast, it is the Great West” (Turner 1134). Turner appears to show a fondness of the western frontier, and the contributions that it made to the history of America with the adaptations of many people becoming “one

Show More
Related

  • Frederick Jackson Turner’s Reliance on the Myth of an Unoccupied American Wilderness

    1542 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Frontier Thesis has been very influential in people’s understanding of American values, government and culture until fairly recently. Frederick Jackson Turner outlines the frontier thesis in his essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”. He argues that expansion of society at the frontier is what explains America’s individuality and ruggedness. Furthermore, he argues that the communitarian values experienced on the frontier carry over to America’s unique perspective on democracy. This idea has been pervasive in studies of American History until fairly recently when it has come under scrutiny for numerous reasons. In his essay “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature”, William Cronon argues that many scholars, Turner included, fall victim to the false notion that a pristine, untouched wilderness existed before European intervention. Turner’s argument does indeed rely on the idea of pristine wilderness, especially because he fails to notice the serious impact that Native Americans had on the landscape of the Americas before Europeans set foot in America.

    Read More

  • Contested Plains by Elliot West

    1191 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough knowledge of what came before the white settlers; “I came to believe that the dramatic, amusing, appalling, wondrous, despicable and heroic years of the mid-nineteenth century have to be seen to some degree in the context of the 120 centuries before them” .

    Read More

  • George Washington's National Identity In 'Founding Gardeners'

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    Because of westward expansion, America gained a significant amount of fertile land which contributed to the nation 's’ agrarian identity. The wilderness and landscape

    Read More

  • The Frontier As A Place Of Conquest And Conflict By Patricia N. Limerick

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    This historical document, The Frontier as a Place of Conquest and Conflict, focuses on the 19th Century in which a large portion of society faced discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and religion. Its author, Patricia N. Limerick, describes the differences seen between the group of Anglo Americans and the minority groups of Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics Americans and African Americans. It is noted that through this document, Limerick exposes us to the laws and restrictions imposed in addition to the men and women who endured and fought against the oppression in many different ways. Overall, the author, Limerick, exposes the readers to the effects that the growth and over flow of people from the Eastern on to the Western states

    Read More

  • The American West: A Land of Opportunity

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    The American West was the land of opportunity for many groups of people from 1865 to 1890. For farmers and ranchers, the American west was a land of opportunity due to low cost of land as a result of the Homestead Act and the a chance for Americans, including immigrants and blacks, to achieve the American dream and make a profit by growing crops such as cotton for the thriving textile industry and raising cattle for the upcoming cattle industry. For the miners, the American West was seen as an opportunity to get rich through the gold and silver rush and was even popular in other parts of the world where immigrants responded to the rush as well; although most were not successful. The America West offered opportunities for Americans, both rich and poor, to establish a new life and achieve economic independence.

    Read More

  • Examining Exclusions in Turner's Thesis

    1473 Words  | 3 Pages

    Turner pointed out several key areas in his thesis that he indicated were absolutes do to the frontier. The first of these was “composite nationality” , which by definition according to Turner’s understanding was, “he (Turner) saw the Native American as a line of savagery…Assimilation could not, according to logic, cope with the presence of the Native American whose customs, were too alien, too different, to become merged into the American self. This implies that the Native American had no other choice than to give in to the demands of the American government or face the consequences if the failed to comply. Hine and Faragher show that the Native American Indian was forced from their homes more than once during the early part of the 19th century because of “manifest destiny”. Those in the United States government who enforced these rules demanded that the country be turned over to the Americans without question because of their supposed superiority over them. David Nichols points out in his article. Civilization Over Savage: Frederick Jackson Turner and The Indian, that Turner’s reference’s the Indians as “public domain” and the disposition of that them by the first frontier. The conclusions that the Native American Indians were nothing more than public domain that needed to be done away with makes me question his bias towards the American Indians as

    Read More

  • Influence of Settlers on the Indians

    905 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the 1830's the Plains Indians were sent to the Great American Deserts in the west because the white men did not think they deserved the land. Afterwards, they were able to live peacefully, and to follow their traditions and customs, but when the white men found out the land they were on were still good for agricultural, or even for railroad land they took it back. Thus, the white man movement westward quickly begun. This prospect to expand westward caused the government to become thoroughly involved in the lives of the Plains Indians. These intrusions by the white men had caused spoilage of the Plains Indians buffalo hunting styles, damaged their social and cultural lives, and hurt their overall lives. The lives of the Plains Indians in the second half of the nineteenth century were greatly affected by the technological development and government actions.

    Read More

  • A Time Of Change:The 1880’s and 1890’s Kansas

    2583 Words  | 6 Pages

    As history cascades through an hourglass, the changing, developmental hands of time are shrouded throughout American history. This ever-changing hourglass of time is reflected in the process of maturation undertaken by western America in the late nineteenth century. Change, as defined by Oxford’s Dictionary, is “To make or become different through alteration or modification.” The notion of change is essential when attempting to unwind the economic make-up of Kansas in the 1880’s and 1890’s. Popular culture often reveres the American cowboy, which has led him to become the predominate figure in America’s “westering” experience (Savage, p3). However, by 1880 the cowboy had become a mythical figure rather than a presence in western life. The era of the cowboy roaming the Great Plains had past and farmers now sought to become the culturally dominant figure and force in the American West. Unlike the cowboys, farmers were able to evolved, organizing and establishing the Populist Party. The farmers’ newly formed political organization provided them with a voice, which mandated western reform. Furthermore, the populist ideas spread quickly and dominated western thought in the 1880’s and 1890’s. The period of the 1880’s and 1890’s marked the end of the American cowboy and gave farmers a political stronghold that would forever impact the modernization of the West.

    Read More

  • The Clanton Gang

    1304 Words  | 3 Pages

    The West: From Lewis and Clark and Wounded Knee: The Turbulent Story of the Settling of Frontier America.

    Read More

  • The Myth of the Old West

    2022 Words  | 5 Pages

    Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.

    Read More

  • A Century Of Dishonor, By Helen Hunt Jackson

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    To understand Jackson’s book and why it was written, however, one must first fully comprehend the context of the time period it was published in and understand what was being done to and about Native Americans in the 19th century. From the Native American point of view, the frontier, which settlers viewed as an economic opportunity, was nothin...

    Read More

  • Turner The Significance Of The Frontier Summary

    252 Words  | 1 Pages

    Turner’s attention was focused on the expansion of North America in “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” Different frontiers have different stories. People of different ethnicities were attracted to the frontier and moved westward. The exploitation and the amount of land led these people to travel. For example, animals and grasses took hunters, traders, and ranchers westward. Turner adds that there are three classes in each western settlement. The pioneer, emigrant and men of the capital. The pioneer lived off of hunting and vegetation. The emigrants purchased that land and made it more civilized. The men of the capital dealt with enterprise. The advances of frontiers led it’s inhabitants to stray from England. This was mainly

    Read More

  • The American West

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    The cowboys of the frontier have long captured the imagination of the American public. Americans, faced with the reality of an increasingly industrialized society, love the image of a man living out in the wilderness fending for himself against the dangers of the unknown. By the end of the 19th century there were few renegade Indians left in the country and the vast expanse of open land to the west of the Mississippi was rapidly filling with settlers.

    Read More

  • American Exceptionalism: Why We Are Different from Other Nations

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    At first, we were a nation of immigrants that prospered in a way that people have never seen. America is known as the land of opportunity, we have innovativeness, and when you really work hard you can definitely make a change for yourself. Turner coins American development by the westward movement. Moving west, and tapping the resources given to us is what made us different. Turner’s thesis is, “The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain[s] American development. The idea that success came from moving west. This idea wraps up how America became the nation to be.

    Read More

  • The Frontier as a Place of Ethnic and Religion Conflict by Patricia Nelson Limerick

    1414 Words  | 3 Pages

    Patricia Nelson Limerick describes the frontier as being a place of where racial tension predominately exists. In her essay, “The Frontier as a Place of Ethnic and Religion Conflict,” Limerick says that the frontier wasn’t the place where everyone got to escape from their problems from previous locations before; instead she suggested that it was the place in which we all met. The frontier gave many the opportunities to find a better life from all over the world. But because this chance for a new life attracted millions of people from different countries across the seas, the United States experienced an influx of immigrants. Since the east was already preoccupied by settlers, the west was available to new settlement and that was where many people went. Once in the western frontier, it was no longer just about blacks and whites. Racial tension rose and many different races and ethnic groups soon experienced discrimination and violence based on their race, and beliefs instead of a since of freedom at the western frontier.

    Read More

More about Jackson Turner Frontier

Open Document