Oregon Trail Emigrants

Though Oregon had given away all its free land by 1855, more would still continue to migrate to California and Oregon for many years. Hundreds and thousands traveled the Oregon Trail, and though approximately one in ten died from illness and accident, many more remained to settle and farm 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 wanted to settle in.

As our textbook describes, “At one time only seven were well enough to the lay the dead in their frosty graves.” (44.) The colonists were not the only ones who were suffering from unique sicknesses, as the Indians were being exposed and introduced to all kinds of new diseases from the settlers. Before the Pilgrims even arrived in Plymouth, the local Indians were already weak and had been torn apart by epidemics. This was because Native Americans in the southeast most likely came into contact with the English fisherman, which allowed disease to spread up the coast. The textbook describes the situation after these epidemics swept through, “deserted Indian fields, ready for tillage… scattered skulls and bones provided grim evidence of the impact of the evidence of the disease.” (48). This shows how much of an impact the disease had on the Natives and how gruesomely the textbook shows this, and it displays the textbook’s cynical approach. In the novel there is not as much gruesome detail about the sickness that the colonists bring with them, but Caleb’s father does get very sick with Measles. Even though there was most certainly disease all around Caleb’s people, as well as Bethia’s, it was never mentioned by either of them, which shows how the novel softens the ‘violent’ nature of disease that was rampant at this

The Oregon Trail was a very important aspect in the history of our country’s development. When Marcus and Narcissa Whitman made the first trip along the Oregon Trail, many Americans saw a window of opportunity. The Oregon Trail was the only practical way to pass through the Rockies. Pioneers crammed themselves into small wagons to try to make it to the unsettled land; however, 10% of these pioneers died on the way due to disease and accidents.

When the California Gold Rush took off almost everyone wanted to try their luck in California, and the first thing they had to do is get there. If you on the eastern side of the United State or from European you had two choices to get to California they were the sea or land route, but if you were on the Pacific Ocean coast you direct sea route to there. The land route took you across the great United State through some of its most extremes weather and terrain, and traveler had survived the untamed west on their own and what they bring. Also, they had to struggle against diseases outbreaks such as Cholera which the text said, “As many as 1500 travelers died from Cholera along the Overland Trail in 1849” (Gillon, 298). The most popular route

Westward expansion caused us to lose our homes and we had to change our culture to the teachings of white settlers. With changes occurring we weren't used to, a lot of us that couldn't survive ended up dying. When white settlers from Europe moved to America we lost our power and control on our own land. We were forced out of the area where we advanced, with many of us dying from battles or from the diseases the Europeans brought over. Many of us died from diseases rather than from the actual battles to defend our land. Now only two percent if that still live on the land in North

Although men often rejoiced in the idea of a new adventure for a chance at economic success, many women felt that the traveling was too much of a gamble as they focused more on the highly relevant hardships they would be facing. The next piece of evidence, that supports both the overall claim and the hardships, is that on the Oregon Trail, emigrants faced hunger, exposure to the elements, poisoned water, and some of them even resulted in some cannibalism. The cannibalism, assuming they survived long enough for the effects to take place, would have most likely caused a prion disease which symptoms would have included memory loss, changes in behavior and mood, and dementia. Arguably this would have been a worse outcome than the eminent death some emigrants faced. One of the main reasons Americans decided to travel westward was to find prosperity and success, also known as the American Dream, however some might argue that taking one group of people’s (the American emigrants) comfort, over the safety of another (the native Americans and Mexicans they stole the land from) is highly immoral.

According to Pioneers West website, it states that the diseases proved to be the biggest killer of emigrants in the West. Smallpox, cholera, tuberculosis, diphtheria, typhoid, "mountain fever," and a host of other sicknesses frequently struck down settlers, who had little or no medical expertise. Imagine having to travel with someone who has contracted the disease, and you can’t help the person out because there is no medicine that could treat him or her. The only option is to wait patiently until they have passed away and find somewhere to bury them. The people who died on the road were put into holes. When they dug up the graves they would mark the graves, some would even try to camouflage the graves to keep animals and even people

The emigrants on the Oregon trail had many troubles faced during their time on the trail due to life threatening diseases. The emigrants on the Oregon Trail had a 10% chance of living if they had gotten a disease. In the essay “Emigrants on the Oregon Trail” Jack Rockefeller

In the early Jamestown settlement disease was the primary causes of settler deaths. “[D]isease in the early years to Jamestown’s position at the salt/freshwater transition, where filth introduced into the river tended to fester rather than flush away.” -Dennis Blanton, “Jamestown’s Environment” (Source B) The settlers of Jamestown had to put their waste somewhere, so they decided to dump it in the nearby Jamestown River. Instead of flushing away quickly the dirty water filled with human waste just sat there for long periods of time until it eventually did flush away. Because of the cleanliness levels of this dirty water many who chose to drink it got sick and died. “Disease returns, 100 at Jamestown sickened and half the number died.” -Adapted from J. Frederick Fausz, “An Abundance of Bloodshed on Both Sides: England’s First Indian War 1609-1614,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (Source G) When people got sick it happened in vast quantities, so it could spread even quicker and infect more people. The death rate of someone who was sick was also very high, many who were sick ended up dying.

2.Route danger&poorly supplied(mt&river),worst in way toward CA-(Sierra Nevada-Donner party- cannibalism)-wagons endangered by illness&accident-Indian attack-few, but white

On the other hand, they also had to hurry because they still had to walk through three mountain passes, the Sierra Nevada to California, and had only time from Spring to Fall. One of the travelers had 'The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California' with them. Since different people meet and had to live with different characters, Tamsen Donner wrote: “We have of the best people in our company and some, too, that are not so good.” Since it was Spring, rain and storm were pretty common and stopped the group on the Big Blue River. For a few people it was already too much of what they can withstand and the first death was by Reeds grandma, the loss of her was tragically written down by Virginia Reed: “..We made a neat coffin, and buried her under a tree... We miss her very much.” So far, there were no other major difficulties for the travelers, it was a pretty smooth trip. Arriving to Fort Bridger about just a week behind schedule, there James Reed meets James Clyman, an old friend who thought that the Hastings shortcut is unpractical, the old way would be more safer, but Reed did not take the advice, he wanted to take the shortcut, probably by the thought that a shortcut in our life also gets us to our target faster.

Native Americans during 1785-1829 were affected by western expansion because of the removal of Native Americans from the land, white settlers attempting to assimilate Native Americans to their culture, and were involved in battles between the a Native Americans and white setters which led to the depleting number of Native Americans.

There were 2 ways to travel by boat and by land. Travelers that took the boats had to sail all the way around South America. This was hard on them because it took a very long time to get all the way around the tip of South America. Also all the dangers they could have faced. Storms, diseases, and drowning. Another reason the traveling was rough was because some travelers went by land through the trails and rough country. This posed many problems like animals could hurt them, or harsh on the body, and even just like boats weather. There was a lot of diseases traveling by foot and many people died. Lastly it states in the text “The California Gold Rush” it states “Some choose via land, but were slowed by no direct road or waterway.”(Mcgill 1-2) This gave a real problem to travelers because they may be in more danger if not on a direct passageway to there destination. They could have gotten lost forever and have to start over alone and even potentially die after running outta resources. Withstanding these difficulties is impressive so let's find out what it was like in

The graph in Document E shows how the number of people killed by diseases was higher than the number of people who died of other causes. As a result of the amount of new people coming into the new world, more diseases were brought over and were more easily harbored and spread by all the bodies being in one area. The brackish water supply and the lack of very nutrient food killed the colonists. Since the colony’s water supply contained waste, it was easy for the colonists to catch each other’s diseases through using the same water as everyone else because it spread all the diseases faster. The settlers’ lack of nutritious food caused them to have weak immune systems which rendered their bodies incapable of fighting off these diseases which ended in the colony’s

The Cherokee marched through, biting cold, rains, and snow. Many people died during this trip from starvation, diseases, exposure,