1820 - 1869 Expansions and Inequalities Westward Expansion

Key Ideas

  1. Women played a critical role in the U.S. campaign to claim and settle the lands west of the Mississippi. 
  2. U.S. expansion was a violent undertaking that had far-reaching consequences for all caught up in the enterprise.
  3. Westward expansion created opportunities for people of different races and genders to push the boundaries of U.S. society and customs.

Introduction

Robert Lindneux (1871–1970). The Trail of Tears, 1942. Woolaroc Museum, Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Westward Expansion

Between 1830 and 1869, thousands of settlers poured into the lands west of the Mississippi River. They traveled by wagon, train, steamship, and on foot, seeking land and the opportunity to build a better life. 

Life in the American West was dangerous and difficult for women of all races and social classes, but it also afforded unique opportunities that did not exist in the more settled parts of the U.S. In the North, Black pioneers sought to build an equitable society, and freedom seekers exploited the patchwork of conflicting laws to self-emancipate. In the Southwest, Mexican women were able to secure social advancement and profit during the Mexican-American War, while further north, Chinese women found opportunities in the construction of the transcontinental railways. And it was in the West, where people were more willing to experiment with social and political convention, that the cause of women’s suffrage scored its first great victory

Not every woman found prosperity in the West. The life of a pioneer was full of challenges and setbacks that women were expected to endure while always living up to popularized ideals of American womanhood. The gender imbalance in the territories led to a steep increase in sex trafficking. And as the U.S. imposed its laws on regions with vastly different histories, some Black women were forced to choose between enslavement and exile

By this time, the U.S. already had a long history of oppressing and exploiting the diverse population of Indigenous people who inhabited the West. But nothing could have prepared Indigenous communities for the violence and dislocation precipitated by the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Indigenous women did not submit to this new era of colonization quietly. Using everything from poetry to public lectures, they made certain the wider U.S. population was aware of the atrocities being committed in the name of American exceptionalism. 

Section Essential Questions

  1. How did women contribute to the U.S. goal of claiming and settling the lands west of the Mississippi River?
  2. What opportunities did U.S. expansion create? How did these opportunities change based on race?
  3. How did Westward expansion impact the Indigenous communities that already occupied the lands claimed by the U.S.?

Resources

An Ojibwe woman’s poem about the tragedy of Indian Removal.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, Indian Removal, Ojibwe, Michigan, Indigenous history, ELA, poetry
Go to Resource
A satirical newspaper article that highlights the heavy expectations that followed white settler women west.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, pioneers, California Gold Rush, women’s labor, gender expectations, social history, California
Go to Resource
An interview about a woman who chose enslavement over exile in Texas.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, slavery, free Black, Texas Revolution, annexation of Texas, Republic of Texas
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A woman’s account of how she emancipated herself in Minnesota.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, slavery, emancipation, free Black, legal history, Minnesota
Go to Resource
Excerpts from the memoir of a Mormon woman whose family crossed the prairie with a handcart when she was a child.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, pioneers, settlers, Mormons, traveling west, Manifest Destiny, homesteads, childhood, Utah
Go to Resource
A photograph and journal excerpt that illustrate what it was like to travel west in a Conestoga wagon.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, pioneers, Conestoga wagons, wagon trains, settlers, Oregon Trail, women’s labor, childhood, motherhood, Oregon
Go to Resource
Photographs that illustrate the beauty and diversity of Indigenous clothing in the western territories.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, Indigenous history, fashion history, Kiowah, Walla Walla, Lakota, Eastern Shoshone, Comanche, Apache
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A type of blanket made by Navajo women enslaved by Mexican settlers.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, Indigenous history, women’s work, women’s labor, slavery, material culture, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah
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A newspaper illustration of the sex trafficking of Chinese girls in California.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, Chinese immigration and migration, women’s work, history of sexual exploitation, California
Go to Resource
A newspaper illustration of women voting in Wyoming.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, women’s suffrage, legal history, Wyoming
Go to Resource

Life Stories

The story of an Afro-Cherokee woman who is forced to walk the Trail of Tears.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, Black history, Indigenous history, slavery, emancipation, free Black, Indian Removal, Cherokee, Indian Territory, Trail of Tears, Georgia, Oklahoma
Go to Resource
The story of a Black pioneer in the Northwest Territory.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, Black history, slavery, emancipation, pioneers, homesteaders, Underground Railroad, Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Indiana
Go to Resource
The story of a Mexican casino owner who assisted the U.S. during the Mexican-American War.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, Mexico, Mexican-American War, women’s work, New Mexico
Go to Resource
The story of a white woman homesteader.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, pioneers, homesteaders, wagon trains, gold rush, Civil War, women’s labor, Nebraska, Colorado
Go to Resource
The story of a Paiute interpreter and activist.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, Indigenous History, Piute, Bannock, Indian Removal, Nevada, Oregon
Go to Resource
The story of a Chinese immigrant and settler.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Westward Expansion, Chinese immigration and migration, sex trafficking, women’s work, transcontinental railroad, Chinese Exclusion, California, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah
Go to Resource