Asbury Park School District Spring Colloquium June 4, 2011

1. Asbury Park School District Spring Colloquium June 4, 2011 Western Expansion and the Turner Thesis Bob Shamy: Director of Professional Development Services AIHE

2. Catch my Campaign Dr. Yohuru Williams & Anthony Fitzpatrick

3. The Frontier Thesis Frederick Jackson Turner (1861-1932) "The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development." What does it mean to be an American? Time Line of Western Settlement/Expansion http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-TimeLine.html 1803 Louisiana Purchase 1804 Lewis Clark 1841 Wagon Trains 1842 Oregon Trail 1847 Mormons Head West 1848 Gold in California 1859 Oil in PA 1861 Talking Wire 1862 Homestead Act 1869 Railroad

4. John L O’Sullivan on Manifest Destiny 1839      “Away, away with all these cobweb tissues of rights of discovery, exploration, settlement, contiguity….Our claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federative self government entrusted to us.  It is a right such as of the tree to space of air and earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle and growth….It is in our future more than our past, or in the past history of Spanish exploration or French colonial rights, that our True Title is to be found.  Oregon can never be to England anything but a mere hunting ground for furs and peltries…In our hands it must fast fill in with a population destined to establish a noble young empire…” John Louis O'Sullivan (November 15, 1813 – March 24, 1895)

5. John Gast’s American Progress 1872

7. “ The Significance of the Frontier in American History” Frederick Jackson Turner Author • Born in Wisconsin 1861 • Father: Journalist and Historian • University of Wisconsin 1884 (Professional Historian) • Johns Hopkins U. 1890 Ph. D. • University of Wisconsin 1889-1910 (Teacher and Scholar) • Harvard Faculty 1910-1924 • A.R.T.I.S.T. can be used with Middle and High School students. • After a brief introduction to the method teachers can assign students to analyze a source either individually or in small groups. • Author • Reason • To whom • Immediate impact • Subsequent effects • Time Period

8. Reason Three years before Turner’s frontier thesis the US Census announced the disappearance of a contiguous frontier. The closing of the frontier prompted Turner to comment on its significance in American history. Ferry Crossing, Oregon Trail C 1840 • …”the frontier is the most rapid front line of Americanization • …every American generation returned to primitive conditions on a continually advancing frontier line • …the meeting point between savagery and civilization-- Americans again and again recapitulated the developmental stages of the emerging industrial order of the 1890's • …begins with the Indian and the hunter; it goes on with the disintegration of savagery by the entrance of the trader... the pastoral stage in ranch life; the exploitation of the soil by the raising of unrotated crops of corn and wheat in sparsely settled farm communities; the intensive culture of the denser farm settlement; and finally the manufacturing organization with the city and the factory system." T U R N E R

9. To Whom Turner first delivered this paper to a gathering of historians (The American Historical Association) in 1893 at Chicago, then the site of the World's Columbian Exposition, an enormous fair to mark the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus' voyage. • Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition • One of the Wonders of the Age • Marked the 400th Year of Columbus to the New World • Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show • Electrification Looked Back to the Great American Frontier and Forward to the Twentieth Century

11. Immediate Effect What does this mean for the future dynamism of the United States? Has the motor that drove this dynamism run out of gas? Turner’s speech was almost totally ignored at the time… but it raised questions. Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson embrace it and bring it to the forefront of the discussion about the future of America.

12. Subsequent Impact TR’s work focused on the subjugation of “savages” and territorial expansion. Some historians interpret Turner’s thesis as a justification to expand American values and Republicanism. …and it gradually builds from that point to become a major piece of historical analysis and debate for decades and to this day is still a source of discussion and interpretation.

13. Additional Research Areas for Extension Activities The Winning of the West, 1889-96TR’s book stressed a “racial struggle between civilized “white people” and savages.” "American and Indian, Boer and Zulu, Cossack and Tartar, New Zealander and Maori, – in each case the victor, horrible though many of his deeds are, has laid deep the foundations for the future greatness of a mighty people." "..it is of incalculable importance that America, Australia, and Siberia should pass out of the hands of their red, black, and yellow aboriginal owners, and become the heritage of the dominant world races." "The world would have halted had it not been for the Teutonic conquests in alien lands; but the victories of Moslem over Christian have always proved a curse in the end. Nothing but sheer evil has come from the victories of Turk and Tartar.” What does it mean to be CIVILIZED? SAVAGE?

14. Subsequent Impact It explained why the American people and American government were so different from Europeans. The idea that the source of America's power and uniqueness was gone was a distressing concept. It sounded an alarming note about the future Radical historians of the 1970s who wanted to focus scholarship on minorities, especially Native Americans and Hispanics, disparaged the frontier thesis because it did not attempt to explain the evolution of those groups. Their approach was to reject the frontier as an important process and limit the story to what happened inside the western areas of the U.S. THROES OF DEMOCRACY: THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR ERA, 1829 - 1877 by Walter A. McDougall “Above all, Americans sustained democracy by pretending to uphold diversity while in fact imposing a breathtaking conformity shaped by Protestant public opinion.”

15. Time Period President Benjamin Harrison 1892, called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of the event. Teachers, preachers, poets and politicians used Columbus Day rituals to teach ideals of patriotism, support for war, citizenship boundaries, the importance of loyalty to the nation, and celebrating social progress. 1888 Edward Bellamy publishes Looking Backward. Sells 1,000,000 copies. Bellamy's book anticipates a future America (the year 2000) of nationalized industry, equal distribution of wealth and the destruction of class divisions. 1889 First Oklahoma Land Rush - The next decade sees a rise in LYNCHINGS. 1890 Wounded Knee - Jacob Riis publishes how the other half lives. 1891 Mob storms New Orleans jail and lynches 11 Italian immigrants, of whom three are Italian nationals, after courts freed 3 Sicilians accused and acquitted of murder of local sheriff. 1892 President Harrison opens 1.8 million acres of the Crow reservation in Montana for settlement.

16. John Gast’s American Progress 1872

17. Manifest Destiny II by Kevin Smith Mixed Media Collage 1992-1997 Bacone College, OK DESCRIBE WHAT YOU SEE IN THE PAINTING