The Wild West consisted of many men, women, and children, but only one made the biggest impact. He was not your everyday Robin Hood. In fact, he was known for being ruthless and vicious. He was a real life outlaw and bandit. He was known for bank robbing, train robbing, and killing people who got in his way. He was Jesse Woodson James and he made his mark on the Wild West until his death in 1882, above all, he remains famous after over 100 years in American history.
First of all, Jesse James began his life on September 5, 1847. Jesse’s parents were Robert S. James and Zerelda Cole James. Robert S. James was a Baptist minister. The James family was well to do. They owned six slaves and well over 200 acres. Robert helped found the William Jewell College in Missouri. Robert traveled to California during the Gold Rush to be a minister. California was where he died from cholera when Jesse was only two years old. Shortly afterwards, Jesse’s mother married Benjamin Simms. After Benjamin’s death, Zerelda married Dr. Reuben Samuel in 1855. As a result, for the first eight years of Jesse’s life he had three different fathers.
During the Civil War, Jesse joined his brother in a confederate squad commanded by Fletch Taylor. Taylor was severely wounded so the James brothers joined a group led by Bloody Bill Anderson (Wikipedia contributors). Jesse was only 16 and badly wounded in the chest. Anderson was killed in an ambush in October. Jesse recovered and went to Texas under Archie Clement, one of Anderson’s lieutenants. In April 1865, Jesse suffered his second life-threatening wound to the chest.
For the most part, after the war, Clement kept his bushwhacker gang together. They focused on banks, trains, and p...
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...eries. Not to mention, Jesse was smart enough not to work as a farmer, but lived the lifestyle he had learned from his brother and the gang.
Furthermore, the name Jesse James simply stands out when one refers to the Wild West. Numerous books and movies have been made about this outlaw. Even though, his way of life was glamorous during the 1800’s; in today’s society, it would not get a person very far. An individual would have to elude the law like Jesse. Instead, more values are instilled in most of the population. Americans today could not stand another Jesse James or maybe they could?
Works Cited
Oydegaard, Floyd D. P. "Chronology of Jesse James." Shadows of the Past, Inc., Looks at Jesse James. Web. 19 May 2010.
Wikipedia contributors. "Jesse James." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, 20 May 2010. Web. 20 May 2010.
Jesse Moncell Bethel was born in New York City, New York on July 8, 1922. He was born to Jesse M. Bethel and Ethel Williams. His father left the home when he was only six months old and his mother died when he was only three and a half years old. Being an orphan now, he was raised by his grandmother in Arkansas. He then moved to Oklahoma where his family sharecropped cotton and cornfields. Bethel attended elementary school while in Oklahoma and later graduated from Booker Washington High School there too. Bethel attended Tillotson College in Austin, Texas. He graduated there with a Bachelors of Science degree in chemistry. He later attended graduate school in 1944 at the University of California Berkley.
Frederick Jackson Turner was largely influential in determining Americans’ perceptions of the West. While tracing the history of the American frontier from white settlement to a gradual disappearance in his essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893), Turner extolled the American West as a hearth for democracy and other “forces dominating American character” (3). He supports this view by hyperbolically describing the frontier’s effects on settlers, “immigrants were Americanized, liberated, and fused into a mixed race, English in neither nationality nor characteristics” (23). Notably, Turner wrote his essay as a response to the 1890 census’ declaration that the western frontier had become settled land. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is set in the late 19th century after the publication of Turner’s essay. The film shows the final stages of the romanticized West’s disappearance evidenced by the two thieves, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, struggling to find places for themselves in the modernizing
James Garfield was a Union army general who fought in the Battles of Middle Creek, Shiloh, and Chickamauga, and would later become the President of the United States for 200 days. He was a self-made man who was an important contributor in the Civil War due to his bravery, leadership skills, and appropriate radicalism.
	. Ironically Jesse’s father was a Baptist preacher, but he did not have much if any influence on Jesse considering that his mother married three times. Jesse’s childhood abruptly ended when he was 14 years old. During this time, Civil War had broken out, dividing the United States into two parts. Not wanting to be left out, Jesse joined a Confederate regiment led by Lieutenant Bloody Bill Anderson. Unlike most other confederate regiments, Bloody Bill Anderson’s regiment would "use small gang hit-and-run attacks" and raid mostly northern cities in Kansas and Missouri (Bruns 35). James rode with Anderson until he was wounded and sent home in 1865.
Jesse Owens, also known as “The Buckeye Bullet,” was known for being one of the greatest track and field, African American runners in the 20th century. Jesse was sick a lot when he was a child, but he still had to work to help his family. When Jesse was 9 years old, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio and found out there was a difference between how he was being treated in Ohio and how he was treated where he lived down south. Jesse attended the Ohio State University and went on to break many
James was born in Orange Township, Ohio on November 19, 1831. James parents are Eliza and Abram Garfield. He was named James for his brother James who died at an early age and Abram for his Father. James was the youngest of the five children. Abram (James’ father) died when James was not even two years old!
Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral were they really fighting for justice or revenge. In the attempt to serve “justice” they blurred the lines of the system to their gain. This essay is prove a point that the marvelous western hero lived a much darker live fueled by revenge, bribes, and gambling.
As a son of a sharecropper and grandson of a slave, Jesse Owens created History in 1936 when he achieved what no athlete had done before: four Olympic Gold Medals. (jesseowens.com). During this era, the United States had limited civil rights and was approaching a World War with Hitler rising into power in Germany. Although Owens was victorious on the track, because of the color of his skin, He was looked down upon and unrecognized by even his own country. Through the excessive racism, one may ask how Owens moved forward and dealt with such negativity in a situation that should have been celebrated.
After the Civil War, Jesse was an Outlaw. He rode with Frank, his cousins the Younger brothers, and many other men such as Bob and Charlie Ford, Jesse’s supposed killers.
Randall, Vernellia R. "Race, Racism and the Law: Speaking truth to power!!" 1997. Examples of Jim Crow Laws. 09 January 2010 .
The story of the American West is still being told today even though most of historic events of the Wild West happened over more than a century ago. In movies, novels, television, and more ways stories of the old west are still being retold, reenacted, and replayed to relive the events of the once so wild and untamed land of the west that so many now fantasize about. After reading about the old west and watching early westerns it is amazing how much Hollywood still glorifies the history and myth of the old west. It may not be directly obvious to every one, but if you look closely there is always a hint of the Western mentality such as honor, justice, romance, drama, and violence. The most interesting thing about the Old West is the fact that history and myth have a very close relationship together in telling the story of the West.
Few Hollywood film makers have captured America’s Wild West history as depicted in the movies, Rio Bravo and El Dorado. Most Western movies had fairly simple but very similar plots, including personal conflicts, land rights, crimes and of course, failed romances that typically led to drinking more alcoholic beverages than could respectfully be consumed by any one person, as they attempted to drown their sorrows away. The 1958 Rio Bravo and 1967 El Dorado Western movies directed by Howard Hawks, and starring John Wayne have a similar theme and plot. They tell the story of a sheriff and three of his deputies, as they stand alone against adversity in the name of the law. Western movies like these two have forever left a memorable and lasting impressions in the memory of every viewer, with its gunfighters, action filled saloons and sardonic showdowns all in the name of masculinity, revenge and unlawful aggressive behavior. Featuring some of the most famous backdrops in the world ranging from the rustic Red Rock Mountains of Monument Valley in Utah, to the jagged snow capped Mountain tops of the Teton Range in Wyoming, gun-slinging cowboys out in search of mischief and most often at their own misfortune traveled far and wide, seeking one dangerous encounter after another, and unfortunately, ending in their own demise.
Pilgrim, David, Dr. "What Was Jim Crow?" What Was Jim Crow. Ferris State University, Sept. 2000.
...nd a man of reserve against violence. Also as a man who will stand for the good of the community, protecting those who need protecting as the Vigilante of the western frontier. The Virginian was a true cowboy hero because he was a vigilante who followed his own moral code. The cowboy’s moral code was not dictated by the laws of society because he was an independent who was working to escape civilization. The Virginian was the first of the western heroes who gave the world someone to look unto as an example. He showed a very strong moral code which had a special responsibility to the protection and respect of women such as Molly. He also had a great many skills which gave him the realistic air that made the hero’s of the west so popular in the early 1900’s as the western frontier came to a close.
revolvers and how he changed the wild west and the way we fight to this day.