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Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion. What is Manifest Destiny?. Ask Yourselves: As a teenager approaching adulthood, what drives you to leave home for college or work? What might convince you to move out of Sayreville? Out of New Jersey?
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What is Manifest Destiny? • Ask Yourselves: As a teenager approaching adulthood, what drives you to leave home for college or work? What might convince you to move out of Sayreville? Out of New Jersey? • Manifest Destiny is the idea that “God gave the pioneers the entire continent of the US” and that it was their duty to settle the western lands • Consider this: How do we connect the Second Great Awakening to Manifest Destiny? How do we connect slavery and abolition to Manifest Destiny?
Going West • Many farmers set out to create farms on the fertile lands of river valleys and woodlands • Referred to as “Squatters”-they settled on land but did not own it • Gov’t wanted to buy land and sell it for lots of profit-squatters wanted to buy it for a fair price • Pre-Emption Act of 1830 gives squatters the right to buy the land before survey (up to 160 acres) at min. $1.25 an acre
New Technologies! • John Deere invents a plow with sharper blades-reduced work by half per acre (1837) • Cyrus McCormick invents the mechanical reaper-a tool that cut grain faster and more efficiently than a sickle and scythe (1834)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMxSCDp-f9I • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXA42rRauzA
Pacific Conversions • Many decided to settle as far as the Pacific coast, believing that wooded areas of the plains would be bad for farming • British and US claimed Oregon country (Today’s Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia/Canada) • Jointly claim in 1818 • By the 1830s, American missionaries came to convert Native Americans to Christianity • Ask Yourselves: Why would Americans be interested in converting Native Americans to Christianity?