(key
words for the radio documentary)
1785 First ambassador to England John Adams (in Grosvenor Square)
(Adams became the second president, 1797‑1801)
Congress, States, autonomy
1776 Declaration of Independence, 1783 Peace of Paris,
1777 Articles
of Confederation, first presented
to the states for adoption
1781
they went into operation. One of the factors in
this long delay was Maryland's insistence on a settlement of the Western
Land Question.
long and lean. most of the populace lived on a strip of land 1300 miles
long and 300 miles wide.
British Indian policy had forbidden the Americans to cross the mountains,
but 10000 adventurous souls ignored the law, crossed
the steep passes, settled in Kentucky, Tennessee.
Most of the new states, especially those that could trace their origins
back to Royal Charters and early trading companies claimed the western territories
beyond the Alleghenies by right.
Virginia ‑ all of Kentucky, large parts of Ohio, Illinois, Michigan
Georgia ‑ all land from Atlantic coast to Mississippi River
Connecticut ‑ vast strip of territory from Western Pennsylvania to Miss.
Maryland owned nothing.
"We do not believe it
right that all the other states should be so profusely endowed, when we have
no land claim outside of our own state territory."
Congress agreed to hold as common property all land west of the Alleghenies.
It was the "duty of Congress to encourage settlement in the new territories
and in time to create new states that can be admitted
to the Confederation."
1787 North West Ordinance, Federal Constitution adopted Westward emigration
Song: Will You Go Out West
War of Independence was
followed by deep economic depression.
depreciation, rapid fluctuation, taxes higher than under British rule, too
hard to bear.
No wonder poor people look hopefully westward where the government allows
them to stake claims to a few virgin acres at a give‑away price, provided
they farm it and make it prosperous.
Would‑be settlers were cut off from new land by Appalachian Mountains
great natural barrier to American expansion.
Breaks: In the north Hudson and Mohawk Rivers in the south Cumberland Gap
out on the plains of Kentucky
Song: Cumberland Gap
first to follow the trail were traders and hunters (long hunters because
of the long distances). They blazed the trail which
the settlers were to follow.
Settlers in their thousands, an unbroken stream of wagons and people,
among them Thomas Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's father.
Eastern families were broken up, sons and daughters left home, destined
never to see their friends and families again.
Song: They Say That This Valley You're Leaving
"immigrants so numerous, it is as if the whole population of the US have
packed their houses in the wagons and headed west."
by 1820 almost 1/3 of inhabitants had taken up residence west of the mountains,
taming the wild land and wild people between the Appalachians and the Mississippi.
No expansion beyond the Mississippi in the 18th century, the land was part
of the Franco Spanish empire.
But inhabitants began to agitate for the American government to annex the
river and the former French port of New Orleans, the only outlet of Western
America's trade with the outside world.
The third president Thomas Jefferson (1801‑1809) sent James Monroe to Paris to buy New Orleans
for 10 million dollars. Monroe struck a good bargain, he
more than doubled the land area of the USA for 3 cents an acre. (15 million
$)
1804‑1806
Lewis and
Clark, explorers and surveyors, went on a government survey to the north west as far as Oregon, on the Missouri from
St. Louis. They came back with glowing reports: wonderful country, countless
buffalo, nomadic tribes of Indians living in tents, great quantities of fur,
gold.
Ohio was the West no longer.
By
1840 it was known as the "Old North West".
The "Far West" lay along the Missouri.
In little over 10 years 5 new states had been carved from western territory:
Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Illinois.
1830
Mormons, unorthodox religious sect, founded by Joseph
Smith in New York
Scattered nature of settlements ‑ few backwoodsmen belong to an organized
church. Dozens of new sects.
Minorites: believed the world would come to an end in 1843
Oneda Colony: more a communist experiment ‑ free love "complex marriage"
Shakers: were opposed to physical love. Large following in 1840, now almost
extinct.
persecution.
Mormons were hounded wherever they went seeking somewhere along the frontier
to live in peace.
Nauvoo ("the beautiful") on the banks of the Mississippi.
"Other settlers hounded us, burned our houses, arrested Joseph Smith, shot
him dead."
Brigham Young, the new leader, decided to leave the US entirely and seek
a new home in the Far West in Mexican territory.
Febr.1846 600 "Saints" left Nauvoo, crossed the frozen Mississippi
and headed west
Song: have You Heard of the Strange People
First camp along the trail at Sugar Creek. Mothers gave birth to offspring
under all circumstances.
Promised land of milk and honey which Brigham Young declared the Lord would
reveal to him at the proper time.
Valley near Great Salt Lake, in Mexican territory.
Men tried to plough the ground. It was so hard it broke the shares. Irrigation
ditches had to be dug before anything would grow.
First recreation: Shakespeare play.
First permanent building to be erected some weeks later: a theatre.
Brigham Young had travelled 1300 miles to escape from American persecution.
He had barely touched down at Salt Lake when the victory of the US in its
war with
Mexico transferred all western territory to the Pacific coast to American
rule.
1848 The US began to take today's geographic shape, nearly
all states of the Union lay in the eastward half.
The Songs:
1. Will You Go
Out West
Where is the girl
who will go out west with me?
We'll live in
some desired place and happy we will be,
We'll build a
little cabin with the ground for a floor
And the distance
for a window and a plank for the door.
Now when I am
a‑reaping and it comes to look like rain,
She mustn't be
afraid for to help get in the grain,
he mustn't be
a‑scared if a‑hunting I must go
For to shoot the
wild deer or to chase the buffalo.
Come all you fair
and pretty maids, now listen to what I say;
When you come
this very day I'm going far away;
And if I do not
find such a girl to be my wife,
I'm going to be
single and live a bachelor all my life.
2. Cumberland
Gap
The first white
man in Cumberland Gap
Was Doctor Walker,
an English chap.
Cumberland Gap
with its cliffs and rocks,
Home of the panther,
bears and fox.
Me and my wife
and my wife's pap
Made our way through
the Cumberland gap.
Cumberland Gap,
Cumberland Gap,
seventeen miles
from the Cumberland Gap.
Lay down, boys,
take a little nap,
17 miles from
the Cumberland Gap.
Cumberland Gap,
it ain't no work,
thirteen miles
from Middlesburg.
3. Red River Valley
From this valley
they say you are going,
I shall miss your
bright eyes and sweet smile,
For you're taking
with you all the sunshine
That has brightened
my path for a while.
Then come sit
by my side if you love me
Do not hasten
to bid me adieu,
Just remember
the Red River Valley,
And my love that
is honest and true.
4. The Mormon
Song
Come all of my
good people and listen to my song
Although it's
not so very good, it's not so very long.
Now concerning
this strange people I'm now going to sing
For the way they
have been treated I think it is a sin.
They've been driven
from their homes and away from Nauvoo
For to seek another
home in the wilderness anew.
They stopped among
the Indians, but there don't mean to stay
And they're soon
be a‑packing up and jogging on their way.
Of log we build
our houses and of dirt we build our floors,
Of sod we build
our chimneys and sacks we make our doors.
Now young men
don't get discouraged, get married if you can,
But take care
don't get a woman that belongs to another man.
Now concerning
this strange people I've nothing more to say
Until we shall
all get settled in some future day.