The movie Far and Away is a good representation of the Oklahoma land rush, Homestead Act, and the immigrant life in the United States. In the movie, Joseph is a headstrong Irishman who is the son of a poor tenant farmer who will never be able to reach his full potential and realize his dreams if he remains on the family land. Joseph feels that by owning land in the United States it will help him move forward in his life. Joseph’s landlord was a good deception of the rich Ireland land owners. The landlords in Ireland is part of the reason why many Irelanders moved to the United States in hopes of owning their own land. The rich landlords who had farmers under their control made it very difficult to provide for their family on very little money and land. This was another reason was why farmers emigrated to America. Most of the Irish people were poor and unskilled and couldn’t take advantage of the opportunities for them either in business or moving west. In addition, Joseph and Shannon moved from Ireland to the United States in search of land. This portrays the Oklahoma land rush during 1889. The Oklahoma land rush was the first land rush into unassigned land. The Oklahoma land rush was a great opportunity for people emigrating to the west because it allowed anyone over the age of 21 to own land. The Oklahoma land rush also allowed for new cities, and new transportation to be established. Joseph and Shannon were determined to get a piece of land so they can have a better life
The idea of moving West started in the mid-nineteenth century. Editor Horace Greely said “Go west, young man” which encouraged many people to move west. The Journey Westward was hard on many families. They were being uprooted and leaving their homes. They sold their farms and homes in the east and packed wagons with enough supplies to travel for about 6 months. In 1869 alone, an estimated 50,000 people migrated to the new territory. Many women felt that their husbands were on “a wild goose chase” and could not understand why they were being moved to this land.
The Journey of moving west was a big deal back then do to transportation and technology. But have you ever wondered why people wanted to move west? Or why people were leaving the land they grew up on? A majority of people going west started in Missouri, other starting points included Nebraska and Iowa. The people that decided to go on this journey wanted to escape one of the many problems that was going on in the east. Some of the problems were economic and religious problems. Some of the people on this trip were runaway slaves looking to start fresh or a criminal that was running away from their crimes. Another reason people went to Oregon was to get there riches in gold by mining.
In the mid-1800s, many Americans began to move westward, with a variety of motivations. Farmers were drawn west by all of the fertile, open land in the west, offered to them cheap by the Homestead Act. The California Gold Rush was another reason many moved west. Gold was discovered in California, and miners flocked there, hoping to strike it rich. Additionally, cattle ranchers were attracted to the west because their beef cattle thrived on the abundant grasses and open range of the Great Plains. Later on, newly built railroads, including the first transcontinental railroad, made transportation of people and goods west much more feasible, and opened the West to rapid settlement (History Alive). Although Westward Expansion was a time of full
Farmers came to the Great Plains is great abundance, as this was heavily encouraged by government land policies and cheap land that was readily available. One of these policies was The Homestead Act, which would provide free or inexpensive land to farmers. The ever-growing railroad industry also offered attractive deals to those wishing to move onto the plains. All of these incentives were very enticing at first for farmers, but when they arrived in their new land they were met with a few problems. This new environment was difficult and dry. The animal and plant life was strange to the farmers. Not only that, but the native inhabitants of this land were warlike. However, farmers soon adapted to their new environment by implementing a few solutions. Lack of wood was solved by sod houses and barbed wire. Windmills and dry farming techniques were used to overcome the lack of water, and new machinery was used for farming. But expensive machinery soon led to debt and this debt led to bankruptcy. Farmers were faced with the same issue as the cattleman and many had to sell out to corporate
At noon of September 16, 1893, a cannon’s boom signaled the start of the Oklahoma Land Rush. About 100,000 people using various forms of transportation rushed out to claim plots of land. Unfortunately, many were disappointed with
It was originally opposed by Northern manufacturers, who feared the loss of inexpensive labor; and Southern slaveholders, who feared the development of free soil. It was intended to branch Western immigration, but numerous frontiersmen would fail and arrive home. The Homestead Act provided settlers with 160 acres of surveyed public land. By living on the property for five years and improving it, a small fee would grant the settler the land. This served as a way to encourage the development of the family farm and fill in the normally unoccupied region in the Great Plains in which railroads facilitated this growth. Because of the severe environmental circumstances of the Great Plain region, the Homestead Act turned out to be less effective than anticipated.
After the Transcontinental Railroad, a railway that stretched across the entire US, was completed in 1869, there were new opportunities expanding in the West. According to the Homestead Act Document which was written in May of 1862, people could obtain free land when under certain conditions, such as “...who has never borne arms against the United States Government…,” and being an approved citizen of the United States. These people were allowed a certain allotment of land in the west, and all they had to do was move there. This allowed expansion for the US, and it made more room for the massive amounts of immigrants pouring in to the country. The Homestead Act of 1862 created a positive effect on the people coming into the United States, and it helped to expand the territory of the country to potentially develop more towns and opportunities for
Because of the Colorado Gold Rush, people swarmed into the state with the optimism of becoming rich. Even though many of these people were “go backers,” the people that did stay assisted in the development of mining towns all throughout the state. A Pike’s Peak journalist described the flocking of people claiming “thousands from the farther East swarmed into the Missouri valley towns, and enough hardy souls crossed the Plains in the fall of 1858 to give the newly-founded towns of Auraria and Denver at the mouth of Cherry creek on the South Platte about 125 cabins, huts, and tents by Christmas.” The gold rush
In 1957, president Eisenhower made Central High School intergrate and the press played a big role in that. In 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson decided separate but equal. But before Plessy vs Ferguson the 13th amendment was made to abolish slavery. In the regards to the events surrounding the integration of Central High School.
In the late eighteen hundreds, my family wasn’t doing so well. They lived in Bohemia, a state in the small east european country Czechoslovakia. At the time, Czechoslovakia had a poor economy and was struggling with poverty. To add, there was a dramatic increase in population in rural areas of the country. The 1870s brought devastating crop failures which led to a agricultural depression in the 1880s. Around this time, the Homestead Acts came into effect, and glowing advertisements flooded the Czech papers. They described a promised land of endless fields and bountiful crops. What better a place to move? Over 50,000 czechs (including my great grandparents) had the same idea and emigrated to America in search of a better life. My family settled
In my European home country the people of the lesser social class suffered considerably. I have experienced war, drought, famine, and religious persecution. It was time to leave the Old World for a chance at better life. The trip costed me almost all I had to my name. The voyage was long and miserable, but the idea of a better life provided me dreams which pumped me full of personal strength and courage. After all, I heard of the Homestead Act which offered the chance to own land and make my own destiny ("U.S. Immigration History," n.a., p. 1-3). This kind of opportunity is not possible in my homeland.
The American Government did their part in encouraging farmers to venture out into the Great Plains. Back during the Civil War, political parties battled with deciding whether to promote the west as proslave or anti-slave; officials would send citizens of their party to claim residence in western territories to populate the newly forming states with enough supporters to strengthen their power in Congress, in this particular debate. Later in the 1800s, regulations and accommodations were passed to make obtaining land cheaper and transportation more efficient. One of these regulations, developed and supported by Abraham Lincoln, was the Homestead Act of 1862. Under this law, any citizen could claim up to 160 acres from the government if they promise to improve the land. Costing close to nothing, many small farm owners saw
The Homestead Act gave 160 acres of land to anyone who paid a small $10 fee, and would work off the land for five years. Since the population on the East coast was so massive, Americans from the eastern states flocked to states such as, Kansas and Nebraska, whose populations grew immensely in the 1870’s. Americans were not the only people to move out West. Many immigrants from all over Europe, such as Germany, Scotland, Russia, and France, dispersed to the West. America was very different from their old countries, but they managed to acclimate by bringing along their culture from their old homes. They created towns similar to theirs in Europe, with the same names and even street plans. Immigrants also cultivated the same wheat as they did in Europe, which happened to thrive in the Western climate, and became one of the most successful American crops. If not for the construction of the transcontinental railroad, immigrants would not have come to America, and the country would not be the melting pot that it is today. Immigrants shared their culture, which would shape the country. America would soon blend these cultures into the American society, and would enjoy the new languages, crops, and knowledge that the immigrants have to
The Owen Valley California territory was once inhabited by the Paiutes people (an indigenous Native American group). When the Unites States acquired the California territory, expeditions were led across the state, and it was discovered by the white man that Owen Valley was a land of value. Government action (e.g. the Preemption and Homestead acts; government subsidies) encouraged western migration and expansion leading to the claim of most of the Owens Valley land. Similar to the guise of gentrification, the white man wanted to take primary control of the area for the sake of “a need for development”. The powerful Americans undermined the use values of the Paiute people, and threatened their quality of life and well-being. The Paiutes resisted unsuccessfully (they were no match for the powerful United States army assisting the white settlers), and through the familiar tactics of deception, coercion, force, and violence, the Paiute people were forced from their land, and the ones who remained were stratified, and forced to endure subpar living conditions and work standards.
As the United States expanded westward, so did their National Road. Between 1819 and 1825, several states built toll roads and turnpikes for faster, safer travel. Along with extending their roads, Americans created advancements in water travel as well by creating canals and using steamboats. Between 1848 and 1849, thousands of “forty-niners” flocked to California in hopes to strike gold and become rich which sparked the Gold Rush. Along with people flocking to California, the U.S. government created the Homestead Act in 1862, which offered farmers free land in Oklahoma as long as they would stay there and attempt to improve the land.