It began in the early 1840s, in a time when the east was filled with people and the west, with land. America's westward expansion was said to be our destiny. Was it?
Anyone who looks at an early map of the United States will see that the eastern seaboard was neatly mapped, the states recognizing almost the same boundaries that they do today. But beyond Kentucky and the Mississippi River, the picture gets much less clear. For a long time, only three states were recognized on the other side of the mighty Mississippi. Until the late 1830s, no one had ever really heard of the Oregon Territory, or knew much about westward expansion.
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman decided to make the trek, and together with the Spaldings became the first white people to see the west. They would describe rich and fertile lands, and their trek would soon fire the imagination of an entire country. The first emigrants blazed the Oregon Trail, and soon their were guidebooks available to the public at large.
In the year 1843, the stage was set for the Great Migration. Thousands gathered in Independence, Missouri, to head out on a trail that would take approximately nine months and more than two thousand miles to complete. There were more livestock on the trail than people, and most emigrants traveled with only a small farm wagon stocked with supplies. Many of these brave travelers were farmers, off to the west in search of free land. Most of them walked the entire way – and some, without adequate shoes on their feet.
The famous phrase “Manifest Destiny” was coined by a journalist in 1844. The idea of Manifest Destiny was that the people of the east had a divine and God-given right to settle the lands of the west. God put the land there for the taking, and so the emigrants answered His call with westward expansion.
Native American tribes had long since been moved from settled lands in the east, traveling across mountain and desert to escape the ever-encroaching whites. As settlers moved west to the Oregon territory, they hunted and killed herds of buffalo that had long since made the western wilds their home. As more moved across the landscape, the buffalo population –a primary staple of many native tribes- was decimated. And the lands became truly settled.
But, the Native Americans wouldn’t continue to take the abuse. In the beginning, relations on the trail were friendly, if infrequent. Many native tribes traded amicably with settlers, who had manufactured goods and distilled beverages that were always interesting. But as more moved west, the natives began to wonder just when the emigration would stop. In 1847, they realized that it wasn’t going to. Lashing out in a rare display of violence, nearby native tribes massacred those at the Whitman Mission, a place of trading and safety that had been settled a decade before by Marcus and Narcissa. The massacre was a frightening testament to the fact that Manifest Destiny wasn’t an idea that suited all the citizens of the United States.
Though Oregon had given away all its free land by 1855, more would continue to migrate to California and Oregon for many years. Thousands upon thousands traveled the Oregon Trail, and though approximately one in ten died from illness and accident, many more remained to settle and cultivate the land. They believed it was their divine right to do so. Today, some historic land marks and wagon ruts remain as monuments to the Oregon Trail. Many of the brave and bold from the east traveled its path, with ambition and hope in their hearts. Many would never see the lands they sought. Was it their destiny to settle the west?
Many travelers set out from the east to settle shores in the west, doing so at great risk to themselves. Today, most of them would probably be glad to know their sacrifices weren’t in vain. And whether or not they had the God-given right to settle in the west, that was exactly what they did. Nothing was able to stop them, even seemingly massive amounts of death, and that is the true miracle of America’s westward expansion.
