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Lesson 8.
How did accounts of life on the frontier differ?
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Depicting a "free" or "savage" west? Opportunity or adversity?
Tasks -
1. Organize information in the documents into positive and negative depictions
of life in the west.
2. Organize information about life in the west by category - food, shelter,
geography, Indians, etc.
3. Assume you were living on the frontier, identify a location and write a
letter to your family back East. Select information from the documents and
include in your letter. Let them know if you are glad you moved west.
4. Write a newspaper advertisement or broadside promoting the west.
5. Documenting your world - Think about a time you moved in your life and write
a description of how your life has changed in a new location. If you have never
moved (or can't remember how it changed your life) then interview someone
who did move.
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Documents
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Format |
Subject |
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Frontier opportunity
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| 3
Letter from a Norwegian immigrant woman living on the
Minnesota frontier |
text |
– needs
editing |
| 12. Opportunities in the West |
text |
by Elias Pym Fordham, 1818 |
| 29 My cabin,
Long Gulch |
drawing |
primitive
of miners cabin |
|
Rough and wild frontier,
fool's in search of riches |
| 2
Louise Clappe, describes a trial and hanging
|
text |
frontier "justice" the wild west |
| 8 "The Lousy Miner," |
lyrics |
and book page |
| 9 Two Depictions for miners
fate |
images |
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| 10 A
Gold Hunter on his Way to California |
image |
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| 11 Captivity and
Suffering of Mrs. Mary Smith |
image |
danger on the frontier |
| 14. "Dealing Out the Last 5 kernels of Corn" |
image |
idealized version of frontier suffering |
| 16. "The Defense of the
Scraggs Cabin" |
image |
Indian violence on the frontier |
| 18. Massacre of the
Christian Indians |
image |
backwoods brutality |
| 19. "I am Going to
Illinois, I have Been" |
image |
optimism vs reality of the west |
| 20. "Busted - A deserted
Railroad Town in Kansas" |
image |
failure in the west |
| 23. San Francisco,
California "Rats on a Rainy Night" |
image |
negative view of life in the west |
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Romanticized frontier |
| 4. The
Trapper's Bride |
image |
alternative
version |
| 5. "Daniel Boone
Sitting at the Door of his Cabin |
image |
|
| 15. A Summer Evening at
Vincennes |
image |
frontier dancing includes Indians |
| 17. A New England
Kitchen-100 yrs ago |
image |
idealized version of pioneer kitchen contrast
to 11-14 |
| 21. Married Mum? No Sir! |
image |
shortage of women on the frontier |
| 22. The Great West |
image |
Allegorical print showing aspects of frontier
life: a farm with sheep and cattle; transportation by river and railroad,
and a plateau in the background; vignettes of such activities as
surveying, mining, and hunting, as well as riverboats. |
| 27 A typical backwoodsman |
text |
tough, reliable, |
| 28 Washington Irving
describes the meeting of the mountain men |
text |
wild times in the off-season |
| 26 Westward-Ho
tobacco |
image |
idealized west |
|
Manifest destiny - land
for sale |
| 1 Mexican describes
Stephen Austin's colony in Texas |
text |
Rough frontier life and a hint of Texas rebellion |
| 6."American
Progress" by John Gast 1872 |
image |
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| 7 "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way." |
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| 13. Land Sale
Advertisement
|
Text |
Tennessee Herald, February 21, 1818. |
| 24. "Go West" |
image |
irony of Pioneer and Indian |
| 25 Railroad Broadsides |
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Link
to Chicago historical Society |
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Kit Carson - Dime novel covers
Daniel Boone
Writers:
Kirkland, Caroline Matilda . A New Home -- Who'll Follow? Or, Glimpses of
Western Life. By Mrs. Mary Clavers
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Eaf240.html
Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire, The Savage State,
1834 http://web.sbu.edu/theology/bychkov/cole.html
California History Online
http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/exhibits/online.html#
Mountain men / native Americans as heroes or savages?
Synoptic Hypertext of Virgin Land
By Eric Gislason http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS2/contents.html
Romancing the Indian http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/projects/rissetto/intro2.html
The Captivity Myth in
American Art http://crh.choate.edu/english/salot/Art--The%20Captivity%20Myth.htm
Native Americans in Early American Art http://crh.choate.edu/english/salot/Art--Native%20Americans%20in%20Early%20Am.%20Art.htm
From NEH edsitement
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On
the Oregon Trail
Work with primary documents and latter-day photographs to recapture the
experience of traveling on the Oregon Trail.
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Sodbusters!
Students examine photographs of sod houses, build a model sod house, and picture
themselves living in a soddie to gain a firsthand perspective on this important
period of American history.
Born
on a Mountaintop?:Davy
Crockett, Tall Tales, and History
Using the life of Davy Crockett as a model, students learn the characteristics
of tall tales and how these stories reflect their historical moment. The lesson
culminates with students writing a tall tale of their own.
If
You Were a Pioneer on the Oregon Trail
As a class, students create an imagined travel experience and then compare it
with the actual experiences of 19th-century pioneers.
On
This Day With Lewis and Clark
Looking at historic maps of the West, students can begin to appreciate the
immensity and mystery of the mission Lewis and Clark accepted.
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