The Western Frontier

"The Frontier in American History" was one of the most famous essays by Frederick Turner in the nineteenth century. In this essay, Turner expressed his thoughts about how the frontier set up and created unique American characteristics. He explained the idea of American exceptionalism, which states that America is different than other nations in the world. The development of America included many significant events, and our nation 's identity was made up by many factors, not just only the frontier. Nowadays, the America defines itself as a large and powerful country in the world. We are all proud to be an American. Thus, the stress on a distinct national identity is appropriate within an increasingly diverse nation-state and an ever globalizing world.

Western, a genre of short stories that are set in the American west, primarily in the late of the 19th century (“Western” 598), and still being told until today by films, televisions, radio, and other art works. The major of moving to the west was because of the Homestead Act, 1862 (“U.S. Statues at Large” 392) which would give lands to people who stayed there for five years. This lead to a huge wave of immigrants moved to the West, and they had to face to many hardships and conflicts such as Indian attacks, tornadoes, blizzards, and illnesses.

How does Turner explain the recurring need for communication and transportation along the American frontier?

The American Frontier, or as it was also known, the Wild West was a time between the 1770s and the late 1900s. The Wild West consisted of the and west of the Mississippi river. This time period lasted for about thirty years, and during this time there were a variety of people that roamed around the towns such as outlaws, lawmen, Native Americans, townspeople, and cowboys. Out in the Wild West the towns were small but, for the size of them, they were called 'home' for many people.

American frontiersmen during the 19th century were some of the fiercest pioneers that have ever roamed newly unexplored territories. After the American Revolution, the United States gained territory that the British Empire claimed as their own west of the Appalachians. This created new opportunities for many Americans throughout the liberated country to travel west, specifically the well-known pioneer--Daniel Boone—who was very famous for his successful settlements in Kentucky. As a result, many men were inspired by the great pioneer to travel across the country, encouraged to move from the passing of the Northwest Ordinance (1787), and the “Manifest Destiny” Movement. Throughout the course of the 19th century many frontiersmen will make their way even further west for exploring, hunting (fur trapping), trading, and even pirating. To greater enhance knowledge of how these mighty frontiersmen lived their lives, this term paper will confer about how the western frontier came to be, while focusing on Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith, and Hugh Glass, icons of the American frontier.

Even though it was easy for women to obtain jobs in the field of domestic work or laundresses, they faced heavier exploitation; considering, that with these jobs women often had no time to care for their families. Leading a life in extreme poverty, these women had no choice, but to search for other opportunities to keep their families, and themselves, alive. At some point African American women even had to sacrifice their prides, in order to earn breadline wages to survive.

With the end of the Civil War, a new era of change began. Slavery was abolished and blacks were able to exercise the same rights as the white man, which accounted for the accurate population count of the United States. The promise of a new beginning and individualism promoted the expansion of the frontier. By 1890 the frontier was fully settled and it closed. Although the Western frontier was explosively settled in a short decade, American Indian settlement, transportation methods and expansion, and availability of desirable natural resources determined the success and sustenance of settlers.

Women have had a hard time with their lives for as long as we know. They were treated as property, an item, and less than a male would ever be. They have struggled, but some struggled more than others. Some lead an easy life as less than human, but others had a hard time. The hardships may have been due to disease, child birth, and home life. This paper will cover the hardships between the Chesapeake and New England women and their differences.

The west is a vast of lands west of the Mississippi river. Before white people came to the land, it was inhabited for centuries by tanned skinned Native Americans whose ways of living are far different from the foreign people. For centuries big colonial empires tried various ways to claim the west until it became a part of United States of America. However, many Natives sacrificed their lives to protect their land, yet in the end their arrows cannot match the power of the foreigner 's guns and cannons. The west is not only abundant in terms of resources, but also in folklore, history, and became the birth of the modern American culture. Furthermore, PBS provided a helpful links in order to understand and appreciate the stories about the stories about how the west became the frontier of United States. These links are "The People" and "Empire upon the Trails" which gave some interesting facts about the beginning of the West.

The emergence of western history as an important field of scholarship started with Frederick Jackson Turner’s (1861-1932) famous essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American history.”[1] This thesis shaped both popular and scholarly views of the West for the next two generations. In his thesis, Turner argued that the West had to be taken seriously. He felt that up to his time there had not been enough research of what he in his essay call “the fundamental, dominating fact in the U.S. history”: the territorial expansion from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. The frontier past was, according to Turner, the best way to describe the distinctive American history and character.

Back in the 1800s we were expanding west constantly, and finding new areas. Though this was good for us, it negatively impacted another group of people. The Native Americans living in the area that we moved through to get to where we wanted were constantly pushed out of their homes and forced to move. This is only a small example of how Native Americans were impacted by the western expansion of the United States.

Once upon a time Lampasas County was an archetype of the Wild Frontier. Lampasas experienced everything associated with the Old West from Indian attacks to family feuds and gunfights, to fires and floods, to cattle drives and ranching, to taking the cure at mineral springs. Lampasas was organized as a county by the Sixth Texas Legislature and named for the Lampasas River on March 10, 1856, but its citizens walked on the rough side of the law until well into the 1870s. Oak Hill Cemetery, distinguished with a Texas historical marker, is a who 's who gallery of rogues, settlers and business leaders from Lampasas County 's past.

There are many people and many reasons why people were going into the western frontier. According to Google, the definition frontier is the extreme limit of understanding or achievement in a particular area. The sudden move to the west was originally caused by gold being found. Settlers would pack up everything and move to the west to get rich. Instead, they found wild cattle, copper, silver, and probably most important, Indians. Because of the lack of law and government control out in the west, lots of criminals would go out there to escape the law. One example being Billy the kid. However, many of these criminals became legends, law men, and ranchers. In Tombstone they found silver and people came flocking to get a claim. In Bisbee, they

Frontiers were not only a vast area of space to be occupied by towns; they symbolized opportunity, ambition and brought forth the idea of always wanting more. As time progressed, frontiers faded, but the desire for “more” remained with Americans and shaped how our society functions. Shame expressed that frontiers have been modernized into our economy. Similar to the Americans in the past always wanting more land, citizens nowadays consistently want more products. The “more factor” has maintained engrained in Americans mindset through the ages and demands to be fueled with products rather than land. Consumers are never satisfied with their belongings and are constantly purchasing more and better products to fulfill these cravings. Consumers

The typical conventions of the western genre included a male lead that fought crime while simultaneously saving the hopeless damsel in distress. Novels comparable to “True Grit” was revolutionary for female protagonists in accordance to the role females play in society. This novel shows that women are no longer expected to take care of the household, raise the kids or expect men to save the day. Even if the novel is a fictitious account of what the wild west was today’s readers are able to identify with a protagonist who questions the norm of society. The protagonist, Mattie, revealed she had “true” grit by vanquishing gender stereotypes to avenge her father’s death.