The Moving Frontier

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The Moving Frontier
This painting (circa 1872) by John Gast called
American Progress is an allegorical
representation of Manifest Destiny. Here
Columbia, a personification of the United States,
leads civilization westward with American
settlers, stringing telegraph wire as she travels
and carrying a school book. The different
economic activities of the pioneers are
highlighted and, especially, the changing forms
of transportation. The American Indians and wild
animals flee.
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I. The West Settled in Stages

• 1. Hunters trappers
• 2. Pioneers
• 3. Permanent Settlers
• a. Farmers
• b. European Immigrants

Fur Trade Tidbits
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II. Land Water Routes West

• 1. The National Road
• 2. The Wilderness Road
• 3. The Ohio River
• 4. The Mississippi River
• 5. The Missouri River

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III. Work Recreation on the Frontier

• 1. Men
• a. Farm the fields
• -corn, soy, wheat
• -plow
• -seed
• -fertilize
• -irrigate
• -harvest
• 2. Women
• a. All other work
• -cook
• -sew mend clothing
• -wash
• -care for livestock
• A womans work is never done

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IV. Rise of New Cities

• 1. On waterways
• 2. People products pass through
• 1. Cincinnati
• 2. Detroit
• 3. Chicago
• 4. St. Louis

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Questions

1. Where was the west in the early 1800s?
2. Why did people move to the west in this era?
3. What was life like on the frontier?