The move to the West Coast is the stuff of legend. In connection with the Oregon Trail suggestion made earlier, the instructor may wish to show a ninety-eight-minute videotape dramatization called Donner Pass: The Road to Survival, available from Social Studies Service of Culver City, California, as well as from other agencies listed in the Educational Film & Video Locator. The videotape is based on George R. Stewart's Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party (1986). A viewing may provide an interesting and useful experience, especially if the class is taking an intensive look at the problems involved in traveling the overland trails. The same story is well told through quotations from survivors' accounts, historical photographs, and comments from writers and historians in The Donner Party, a ninety-minute episode in The American Experience series produced by PBS Video.

PBS Video also offers a thirty-minute videotape in the American Adventure Series under the title Manifest Destiny. It deals well with the matters of Oregon, Texas, and the Southwest and may be used effectively to introduce a closer analysis through lecture and discussion. Or it is helpful as a means of summing up.

The Oregon Trail is the subject of four videos, each twenty-five minutes, from Films for the Humanities and Sciences. They are Beginnings, Across the Plains, Through the Rockies, and The Final Steps, each taking viewers through a portion of the journey with both present-day scenes and historical materials. A romantic, mythic approach to Manifest Destiny and the pioneer spirit, The Golden Land (fifty-two minutes), is available from the same source. PBS Video offers In Search of the Oregon Trail, two hours, fifty minutes. It tells the story of the overlanders through diaries and other archival materials and shows that the "uninhabited" lands supported Indian inhabitants who were sometimes friendly. Another trail is treated in PBS Video's Trail of Hope: The Story of the Mormon Trail (one hour, fifty-five minutes). Brilliantly executed and very positively inclined toward its subject, it includes some very effective enactment with wagons and handcarts done without dialogue. Utah: The Struggle for Statehood (ninety minutes), also from PBS, provides an account of the early years of the Mormon settlement.

Films for the Humanities and Sciences offers The Gold Rush (sixty minutes), a full account of the event and also of some of its long-term effects on American society.

Expansion at Mexico's expense is visually portrayed in Martha A. Sandweiss et al., Eyewitness to War: Prints and Daguerreotypes of the Mexican War, 1846-1848 (1989), a richly illustrated, oversized volume. A full video treatment is available from PBS Video. The U.S.-Mexican War, 1846-1848 is offered in four segments totaling four hours. It draws on photographs, paintings, other archival materials, and comments by historians. The beginnings of the war between Texas and Mexico are treated in Battle of the Alamo (fifty-four minutes), available from Discovery Communications, 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, Md. 20814. It provides a balanced account of that important event. A fuller and more reverent account is available from Zenger Media, P.O. Box 802, Culver City, Calif. 90232. The Alamo runs for one hour, fifty minutes.

The American Heritage Media Collection offers an even broader sweep in Part 5, Expansion and Change, of The Making of the Nation. Part 5 goes from the Panic of 1837 through the Mexican War, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and up to the election of Abraham Lincoln. In sound-filmstrip format, it may of course be stopped at any time quite easily.

The immigrant experience is skillfully treated in Five Points, a thirty-minute videotape from the American Social History Project. Conflicting perspectives of a native-born Protestant reformer and an immigrant Irish Catholic family in New York City's Five Points slum are presented in a storytelling mode.

In 1834 Richard Henry Dana left his studies at Harvard College, signed on the brig Pilgrim as a seaman, and went around the Horn to California, where he engaged in the hides trade. He went ashore to work for several months and returned as a seaman aboard Alert. His account of the experience, Two Years Before the Mast (1840), provides fascinating reading and an insight into a world with which students will have had little experience. Dana returned to Harvard and finished at the top of his class.
Document Set 13-1

Manifest Destiny and Mission: The Mexican War and The Extension of Freedom

1. Expressions of American Destiny, 1839
2. Senator Benton Justifies White Supremacy, 1846
3. President Polk Takes the Nation to War, 1846
4. President Polk's Message to Congress, 1846
5. Abraham Lincoln Calls Polk to Account, 1848
6. A Mexican View of the War, 1850The Mexican War offers an opportunity for students to test T. E. Lawrence's assertion that "the documents are liars." It certainly illustrates the hazards of any attempt to "let the documents speak for themselves." This chapter also encourages students to approach scholars' accounts with a measure of skepticism. Analysis of the excerpt from the combined work of the Mexican scholars will force students to grapple with the problem of conflicting evidence.Beyond this the most obvious question to be considered lies in the tangled web of historical causation. Chapter 13 provides background on American territorial expansion, including ideology, population movement, political maneuvering, economic goals, and social pressures. By examining the documents, students can engage in fruitful discussion of the Mexican War's deeper roots.Related to this topic is another analytical problem that will sharpen student consciousness of past-present linkage, including an awareness of continuity over time. The study of Manifest Destiny allows students to reach back to the Puritan sense of mission and to follow this theme through the birth of the American "empire" in the late nineteenth century. This discussion should emphasize the early origins of expansionism, the concept of divine ordination, racial Anglo-Saxonism, and the belief in a "destined use of the soil."Having explored the background, students may now attack the origins of the Mexican War in the immediate context of the dynamic 1840s. It will be useful to link the slavery controversy, the Democratic party's internal tensions, and the convergence of events between 1844 and 1848. The documents emphasize the Polk administration's interest in California and the West Coast. Students should confront the implications of Slidell's activities. As students examine the immediate context, they need to be aware of sequence as well as the developments of 1845-1846.It may be useful to ask students to place themselves in Mexico City and to assign them responsibility for arguing the Mexican position on the war's background. Still another approach would be to stage a Polk-Lincoln debate by class members. Student groups could also prepare position papers, employing arguments found in the evidence.The Mexican War again allows students to assess the influence of "great men" on the course of historical events. Polk's diary and war message raise the question of the president's role in the war decision. Students will ask whether military conflict was inevitable, and instructors can encourage the inquiry by insisting on a return to the documents for insight.This chapter will help students identify and sort out long-term causes, long-held national assumptions, immediate context, the force of personality, and geopolitical factors in the war's origins. Moreover, the topic offers an unparalleled opportunity to discuss thesis development, the use of evidence, and the explication of argument.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 13-1


Gene Black. Mexico Views Manifest Destiny, 1821-1846 (1975).

Norman Graebner. "The Mexican War: A Study of Causation." Pacific Historical Review 59 (1980): 405-426.

Thomas R. Hietala. Manifest Design: Anxious Aggrandizement in Late Jacksonian America (1985).

Reginald Horsman. Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism (1981).

Robert W. Johnson. To the Halls of Montezuma: The Mexican War in the American Imagination (1985).

David M. Pletcher. The Diplomacy of Annexation: Texas, Oregon, and the Mexican War (1973).

Glenn W. Price. Origins of the War with Mexico: The Polk-Stockton Intrigue (1967).

John H. Schroeder. Mr. Polk's War: American Opposition and Dissent, 1846-1848 (1971).

Anders Stephanson. Manifest Destiny: American Expansionism and the Empire of Right (1995).

David J. Weber. The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846: The American Southwest Under Mexico (1982).
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 13-1


Manifest Destiny: 'Cross the Wide Missouri (audiotape--30 min.). Audiotape Program 12, Annenberg/CPB Project American History Series. Annenberg/CPB Project, 1111 16th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036.

The Romantic Horizon (videotape film--52 min.). Films for the Humanities and Sciences, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, N.J. 08543-2053.

War with Mexico, 1846-1849 (photographs). Documentary Photo Aids, P.O. Box 956, Mt. Dora, Fla. 32757.

Tierra o Muerte: Land or Death (videotape--59 min.). University of California Extension, Center for Media and Independent Learning, 2176 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, Calif. 94704.

The U.S.-Mexican War (videotape series--4 hrs.). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.
Document Set 13-2

The Clash of Cultures: Nativism in Antebellum America

1. Immigration Statistics by Country and Occupation Group
2. Samuel F. B. Morse Expresses Anti-Catholicism, 1835
3. A Fictitious Account of Life in a Convent, 1836
4. A Warning Against the Native American Party, 1844
5. A Protest Against Oppressive Capitalism, 1845
6. Daniel Webster Argues for Revision of the Naturalization Laws, 1844In recent years a new wave of Hispanic, black, and Asian immigration into the United States has resulted in a major political controversy and produced legislative action to control the flow of "illegals." In view of the current policy dispute, the documents on antebellum nativism provide a good opportunity to establish past-present linkage. Instructors might approach the topic by using a "backward from current problems" strategy, beginning with discussion of recently passed immigration legislation. Students should examine reasons for resistance to the immigrants of our time. An examination of historical precedents for the resentment of outsiders will take students back to the evidence from the 1830s and 1840s. Comparative analysis of nineteenth- and twentieth-century positions should produce lively discussion. The result will be greater insight into the thought processes of nineteenth-century men and women, as well as better understanding of a modern dilemma.Equally illuminating will be an examination of the "melting pot" concept. Instructors may wish to begin with a discussion of the phrase "melting pot" and the assimilationist assumptions that it reflects. The evidence from the documents, however, should raise questions about how great a unifying impact the American social environment really had. The disagreement evident in the documents can be a bridge to the present, if instructors choose to address the issue of modern ethnic consciousness and resiliency.In this connection instructors could introduce another provocative issue by questioning the extent of ethnic and religious tolerance in the American experience. After analyzing the persecution of Germans and Irish Catholics in the 1840s, students should ask whether victims of discrimination (and their heirs) become more tolerant of the persecuted over time. If experience did not always produce tolerance, how can the emergence of cultural pluralism be explained?A variety of evidence, sometimes conflicting, has been presented in this chapter. One analytic technique would be to arrange the documents by category of argument--religious, economic, and political. After grouping the evidence, students might be asked to defend one position orally or in writing. Instructors should also encourage an examination of authors' underlying motives and cultural predispositions, which will require that students combine knowledge gained from text reading with their own analytical insight.The evidence in this chapter is also adaptable to analysis through debate. Students may be divided into immigrant and nativist groups and asked to study the documents supporting their respective positions. Using a discussion format, each group could defend its position orally. Alternatively, group members could prepare a position paper to present to the "opposition" for review and criticism.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 13-2


Tyler Anbinder. Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know-Nothings and the Politics of the 1850s (1992).

Ray A. Billington. The Protestant Crusade, 1800-1860: A Study in the Origins of Nativism (1938).

John Bodnar. The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in America (1985).

David B. Davis. "Some Themes of Counter-Subversion: An Analysis of Anti-Masonic, Anti-Catholic, and Anti-Mormon Literature." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 47 (1960): 204-224.

Jay P. Dolan. The Immigrant Church: New York's Irish and German Catholics, 1815-1865 (1975).

Oscar Handlin. Boston's Immigrants, 1790-1880: A Study in Acculturation (rev. ed., 1969).

Ira M. Leonard and Robert D. Parmet. American Nativism, 1830-1860 (1971).

Bruce Levine. The Spirit of 1848: German Immigrants, Labor Conflict, and the Coming of the Civil War (1992).

Kerby A. Miller. Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (1985).

Stanley Nadel. Little Germany: Ethnicity, Religion, and Class in New York City, 1845-1880 (1990).
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 13-2


Five Points (videotape--30 min.). American Social History Productions, Inc., 99 Hudson Street, New York, N.Y. 10013.

The Great Hunger. The Irish in America Series (videotape--90 min.). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.
Document Set 13-3

The Overland Trail: Sharing the Burden

1. The Lure of the Northwest Spawns "Oregon Fever," 1843
2. An Idealized Description of the Trek West, 1845
3. Oregon Emigrants Provide for Civil Government on the Trail, 1844
4. A Pioneer Woman Copes with Personal Tragedy, 1847-1850
5. An Oregon Pioneer Records the Journey West to Start a New Life, 1853
6. Images of Life and Death on the Oregon TrailAn important theme in Chapter 13 is the rapid expansion of the United States in the 1840s. One of the important arguments for the acquisition of the entire Oregon territory was the substantial physical presence of Americans in the Pacific Northwest by the time it became the subject of major international dispute in 1846. This unit emphasizes the increase in Oregon's American population as a result of the large-scale overland emigration of the mid-1840s.The focus of Document Set 13-3 is the emigration experience itself and its impact on the individuals and families who relocated in pursuit of economic betterment. Because this mass movement was essentially a family undertaking, the documents have been chosen and arranged to highlight the changes in sex roles and gender relations that resulted from the challenges encountered during the westward migration. Instructors will therefore want to encourage discussion of the frontier's impact on traditional assumptions about gender-based spheres of occupational and social activity.To provide the necessary background, a lecture on the concept of "separate spheres" would be useful. Once students have considered the traditional value system and its origins, they will be able to explore the documents for evidence of the old assumptions inherent in the thinking of those planning or promoting emigration. Students might also be asked about the extent to which women initiated a family's decision to relocate.After discussion of the doctrine of separate spheres, it should become obvious that the reality of life on the overland trail was shattering for those who had accepted the social assumptions of the time. Instructors might want to encourage students to scan the two diaries for entries that suggest a breach in traditional sex roles and responsibilities.A careful reading of the documents could also provide insight into female responses to the changes in role definition. A review of the source material may provide insight into emotional reactions and personal feelings about the abandonment of traditional ideas of womanhood. Students could be asked to determine the impact of the emigration experience on the ways in which women (and men) thought of themselves and of others.Still another point raised by the documents involves the impact of the journey west on the sense of community. Students might be asked how emigrants were able to enforce social order on themselves in the absence of civil government or an established institutional structure. Emphasis might be placed on both the formal institutions and informal practices that evolved in response to the need for order.Perhaps the most significant issue to be addressed in discussing these documents would be the long-term implications of the temporary disruptions that occurred on the overland trail. For background on this problem, instructors may wish to consult the work of Julie Roy Jeffrey or John M. Faragher (see "Recommended Readings"), which discusses the interpretive question. Instructors and students will want to speculate on the permanence of the sex-role redefinitions that appear to have taken place under the pressure of frontier conditions. The critical question will be the values and attitudes expressed by men and women in the West once the frontier stage of development came to an end.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 13-3


Susan Armitage and Elizabeth Jameson, eds. The Women's West (1987).

Ray Allen Billington. The Far Western Frontier, 1830-1860 (1956).

Malcolm Clark, Jr. Eden Seekers: The Settlement of Oregon, 1812-1862 (1981).

John M. Faragher. Women and Men on the Oregon Trail (1979).

Julie Roy Jeffrey. Frontier Women: The Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-1890 (1979).

Polly Welts Kaufman. Women Teachers on the Frontier (1984).

Annette Kolodny. The Land Before Her: Fantasy and Experience of the American Frontiers, 1630-1860 (1985).

Sandra L. Myres. Westering Women and the Frontier Experience, 1800-1915 (1982).

John D. Unruh, Jr. The Plain Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-1860 (1979).
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 13-3


The Donner Party. The American Experience Series (videotape--90 min.). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.

Families Go West (audiotape--30 min.). Audiotape Program 15, Annenberg/CPB Project Legacies Series. Annenberg/CPB Project, 1111 16th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036.

The Golden Land (videotape--52 min.). Films for the Humanities and Sciences, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, N.J. 08543-2053.

Gone West (videotape--55 min.). America Series, Episode 5. Time-Life Films, 110 Eisenhower Drive, P.O. Box 644, Paramus, N.J. 07652.