Heading West

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Heading West Push/Pull!
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• In 1780, 2.7 million people lived in 13 states
• Fifty years later . . . In 1830, 12 million
  people lived in 24 states

Why do people move west?
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The average family had five children at this
time!
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Push Factors Cause People to Leave Home!

• Why did Cowboys leave home?
• What forced Exodusters to move?
• Why did Native Americans migrate West?

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Push Factors

• Think about . . .What pushed you out of bed
  today?

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Pull Factors Draws People to New Location!

• Why did Railroad Workers end up in California?
• What led Mormons to settle in Utah?

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Pull Factors

• Think about this . . . What pulled you to SS
  today?

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Push Factors to the West

• Overcrowding (you need a new place to live)
• Need for jobs (displaced workers)
• Ethnic/Religious repression
• Refuge for outlaws

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Pull Factors to the West

• Land (cheap and plentiful)
• Riches (gold, silver, later oil)
• Freedom of religion/beliefs

• Family connections
• Jobs and new opportunities

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Adventure!
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Or maybe to find LOVEPerhaps a mail-order bride?
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Today . . .

• What are some modern day examples of push/pull?
• Poor economy - people move for jobs
• New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina evacuations

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What encouraged (or pushed) so many Americans to
go West (or did they get pulled West)?

• A belief in the philosophy of Manifest Destiny,
  which stated that ..

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• . God, , clearly wanted hardworking
  American(s) to occupy North America. It was
  inevitable and good that the United States occupy
  the continent from sea to shining sea.

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• John L. OSullivan (editor) gave these ideas a
  name Manifest Destiny

• It is, he wrote, our manifest destiny to
  overspread the continent allotted by Providence
  for the free development of our yearly
  multiplying millions.

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• What incentives does the government provide to
  help fulfill this manifest destiny and pull
  people west?

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Incentives to go west 1

• Homestead Act for approximately 10, settlers
  could have 160 acres of western land, if they met
  certain criteria

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• American citizens who were 21 years or older, or
  the head of a household
• Built a home on their lot, and lived in it at
  least 6 mos. of the year
• Farmed the land for 5 years or more

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Mr. Mrs. David Vincent and daughter, Martha, by
their sod house near White River, South Dakota
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Sod

• Tough layer of prairie sod. The turf is held
  together for a depth of about a foot. The
  durability of the sod layer prevents erosion from
  taking place at the same rate as on the deposits
  below it.

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Sod Houses - Interior
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• Imagine the isolation felt by the homesteaders!

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Incentives to go west 2

• The Pacific Railways Act
• Granted railroads 10 square miles on either side
  of each track they laid to the west

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What did the railroads do with all that land?

• They Sold It!!

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Incentive to go west 3

• Morrill-Land Grants
• Gave land to state educational facilities with
  curriculum tied to agriculture and mechanical
  arts (Texas AM, Oklahoma AM, etc.)

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• states were given land in the west in exchange
  for opening up colleges even Delaware!

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• What potential conflicts might occur as a
  result of all this movement?

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Lets Check This Area Out!