The Donner Party Essay

On our trip to California, we (the Donner Party) were forced to face many unexpected hardships. At Alcove springs Grandmother Keyes died. Just past Fort Bridger we took the Hastings Cutoff, which we were informed saved 400 miles. The information was wrong. The shortcut added 100 miles to the journey.

The Donner Party had a great effect on the way pioneers traveled later on in time. The Miller and Reed families left on April 26, 1846 (Rosen). The Donners’ arrive at Independece, Missouri on May 10, 1846 (Rosen). The emigrants who would later form the Donner Party traveled with the Russell Party from Independece, Missouri to Alcove Springs in the Indian territory, which is now Kansas (Rosen). On Sunday November 1, 1846 the Donner Party decided to stay in Nevada for the winter (Rosen).

The Westward Expansion all started when America made the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. There were many benefits from the purchase for the US that the French didn’t realize before they sold it. The purchase gave the US access to the Mississippi river which allowed for expansion of river trade to the North and South from the center of the US. The port city of New Orleans was bought by the US and its prosperity benefited the US greatly. The US sent Lewis and Clark west to investigate the land they purchased. After their exploration, many people started to take interest in moving West. There were many different reasons why people moved, including a search for a fresh start at life, a chance at starting an economic success through agriculture and

Numerous aspects influences Europeans to immigrate to the United States including unemployment, the seeking of refuge from religious prosecution, food shortages, and increasing threats of war. Hope that America would provide a new home with a new start encouraged 6.3 million people to enter the United States between 1877 and 1890. Prior to the 1880’s, most immigrants originated from Germany, Ireland, and England; however, the sources began to shift away from northern and western Europe in the 1880’s. An increase of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe quickly replaced those prior to the 1880’s. “New immigrants” from Italy, Greece, Austria-Hungary, Poland, and Russia practiced Catholicism and Judaism instead of Protestantism. Between

The period after the civil war saw the United States of America economy transform to become a national economy and an industrial giant. The already existing industries quickly expanded and new ones emerged including steel manufacturing, electrical power, and petroleum refining. This period saw the rapid expansion of the railroad network which would subsequently connect even the remote parts of the country into the national economic grid essentially transforming the regional markets into a national economy. Following the economic expansion, the American society was greatly transformed creating a new crop of wealthy individuals and a dynamic middle class. Additionally, there was a vast expansion of blue collar job opportunities which quickly

“My father, with tears in his eyes, tried to smile as one friend after another grasped his hand in a last farewell. Mama was overcome with grief. At last we were all in the wagons. The drivers cracked their whips. The oxen moved slowly forward and the long journey had begun.” — Virginia Reed, daughter of James Reed. A tragic story of the Donner party is a very harrowing adventure through the journey of the big group and how about half of the people lived to tell the tale.

In what ways did the American West of the late nineteenth century represent a contrast to the East? In what ways did the two regions resemble each other?

During the “Gilded Age” period of American history, development of the Trans-Mississippi west was crucial to fulfilling the American dream of manifest destiny and creating an identity which was distinctly American. Since the west is often associated with rugged pioneers and frontiersmen, there is an overarching idea of hardy American individualism. However, although these settlers were brave and helped to make America into what it is today, they heavily relied on federal support. It would not have been possible for white Americans to settle the Trans-Mississippi west without the US government removing Native Americans from their lands and placing them on reservations, offering land grants and incentives for people to move out west, and the

For some, it was destiny to move west. Although there were many conflicts and disagreements between ourselves and others, it was destiny to move west because of overpopulation, new inventions of transportation methods, and new opportunities.

The West was a blank slate: a new land with uncharted areas with unfamiliar scenery, animals, and inhabitants, as well as different weather patterns. The West was an entire new place to view. It could be settled about in so many different avenues. It was up to the individuals in the East and South to move west and make it a place of success. Additionally, a whole new way of thinking was born into the region. In the excerpt from the A Plea for the West, written by Lyman Beecher, the author argued that the West had much importance to start out on the right foot and become a place that is respectable and stable. There are no churches, schools, homes, or anything that the East and the South already boasted during that time period. Beecher even

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the era of the Great Depression in the 1930’s is revealed through a simple story of ranch workers who hope to improve their lives. Migrant workers, George and Lennie, have a friendship that is based on trust and protection. The other workers lack the companionship and bond that these two men have. In the novel, the absence and presence of friendship is the motivation for the characters’ actions.

Desperate Passage tells the story of the Donner Party, which was a group of American families who wanted to travel to the West Coast in order to live a more lavish and comfortable life. The families came together to form what was called a wagon train in May 1846. Another reason for the Americans movement westward, was the belief in manifest destiny. Manifest destiny was the belief of the United States expanding towards the California coast. It was also because the views on religious freedom, were nowhere near as strict as they wear on the East

In 1893 Frederic Jackson Turner a historian, introduces the “Frontier Thesis” in Columbian Exposition, he explains from this thesis about the importance of American history. Frontier thesis remarks the end of a great historic society. Because Frederic Jackson argues that continuous western settlement had an extraordinary impact on American social, political and economic development throughout 20th

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West, Ethan Rarick, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2008.

Chapter six opens with Jack driving out west he states that “For West is where we all plan to go someday. It is where you go when the land gives out and the old-field pines encroach. It is where you go when you get a letter saying: flee, all is discovered… It is where you go to grow up with the country. It is where you go to spend your old age. Or it is where you just go.” (pg. 376-377) This passage shows how many go to the west for an escape from their lives. It hints that many go out west because they have given up on their lives and they want to start a new. It builds this idea that the west is still the new frontier, still waiting for people to flock and discover whatever wonders await from them. The passage ends with “it is where you just go”, hinting that many people just leave for the west just simply because they want to. Many who move out west have no real motive, they just want to escape whatever problems lie in the east. There is no real objective that anyone wants to achieve when they escape to the west, they just want to start fresh. This contrasts the idea of the self-made man. Throughout the book the reader sees how something as simple as refusing a drink is in reality a major power move, and that those who strive for power will achieve the self-made man ideal. Everything has a motive if a person wants to be successful, this is why those who move west ultimately