Transcripts For CSPAN3 Oregon Trail 20151128

Graduate school, i realized that this was a story that had not been been retold by academics. It was something i wanted to pursue. Most everyone has heard of the oregon trail. Can you give us a over view of where it started, where it ended, and what years people traveled . Sarah many of the people who traveled overland to oregon and are leaving from towns on the edge of the western United States. Places thating from are more interior, farming communities in illinois and iowa. They are leaving from missouri, going all the way across the country. The most traveled route is across the central claim. One of the key aspects of what makes this migration so unique is that in the first place, it is so long, 2000 miles across mostly indian country, and it lasts so long. This is a migration going on in the 1840s, 1850s. Throughout these three pivotal decades of the 19th century, you have people making this migration. The area changes changes as our changes going on in the United States. What motivated people to make this journey . Sarah theres a lot of different motivations. We often think of it east to west. Going,e Farming Families theres actual legislation passed that makes land cheaply available. That is a huge draw. You also have livestock figures. Can getlize if they cows to the pacific coast, theyre going to make a lot of money. Also have people traveling the trail at least once a year for maybe a decade or so of. Heir lives durin is discovered in california, that changes the flow of the migration. You have more young men coming from further eastern urban centers like we are. How do you conduct your , andrch on the subject what kinds of people did you who stories discussed the travel . Ah most of my research one of the great things about my research is im reading peoples letters, diaries, and journals. One of the fascinating things about this archive is that many of the people who wrote accounts of this journey, this is the only thing they ever wrote for the only thing that ever got saved in the archive. This is the one glimpse we have into their lives. There is one family whose papers are at the Huntington Library in california. They are in buffalo, new york. Samuel, the father, and george the sun decide to go to and sarah,in 1849, the mother, is distraught because shes terrified that theyre going to perish, theyre going to contract on this journey. The sad thing is that shes right and her son george dies on a steamboat. Samuel takes the body home. And then he dies in california. Thatu mentioned a law encouraged people to take this route. Can you elaborate on that . Sarah the oregon donation land act is donating land to homesteaders. Is building on this american idea that we can build families, creating independent, free, virtuous citizens. Women itws increases the amount a married couple can get. You mentioned fear of disease and death. How dangerous it was the people that took it . That it probably wasnt much dangerous as if they had stayed at home. You had growing urbanization, but not a lot of understanding of sanitation practices. Is becomingtates more powerful, expanding demographically and territorially. Theyre also losing citizens at an alarming rate. Infant mortality is a major problem in the 19th century. There is a major conversation happening around that. Going to the west is an idea of, this is a healthy place. Theres this old story that if you moved to oregon and california, youll never be able to die because its so wonderful. Jerk Journey Towards Something Better in terms of health. In the early 1850s you have a major cholera epidemic along the trail. And, that sort of inverts the story. It is associated with an epidemic. It is predominately in urban centers such as new york. People start to exaggerate these fears of dying on the trail. Theyre building on and transforming earlier preconceptions about indians as being murderers. This is something people are aware of because theyve heard family stories, and there also consuming it in the press. Ss ofw serious was the stre native americans along the trail . In general, most of the interactions are fleeting. Theyre about getting assistance crossing rivers. Indians operate farriers fer ries. However, theres a constant discourse of rumors that indians have a tax, attacks. Immigrants are hearing these things as they are traveling. They have existing cultural conceptions and evidence of rumor on the trail. Cholera kind of fits into the existing fear because then it shifts more to rumors about cholera. People have it here in this missouri town. They will often say, theres cholera in the southern town so you should come to ours. What more can you tell us about their journey that would give us a sense of what life was like along the trail . The most highly documented aspect of their journey is the journey before they start the actual trail. I think its really indicative of what that experience was like for people. The trail was defined as missouri west. Traveling fore weeks, sometimes months before they reach this point. It takes people six months across the continent. Interestingis because they use this journey as an opportunity to visit relatives who they have not seen for years. One of the things in the 19th century is people are moving around a lot and families are dispersing because of economic reasons and all these other factors. Samuel and george use their initial journey as an opportunity to visit relatives in places like pennsylvania after heading down from buffalo. In terms of the daytoday experience on the trail, it is slow going, its hard work, and theres a lot of unknown elements and challenges. You have people who need to cross rivers with heavily loaded wagons and livestock. In 1849 when the family left, the trail was very crowded. What this meant was it was , and it was also very limited in terms of resources. Had five or six widens wagons, you can wait there for days to get the proper equipment to cross. Many peoplend that have stereotypes about the oregon trail, and in your research have you found evidence that there are stereotypes that are not true at all . Sarah i think there are stereotypes to the trail. Thinking about indians and immigrants is having a range of types of interactions. One of the stereotypes and working on im working on is this is better than an isolated western adventure that doesnt necessarily connect to peoples lives back home. They go west and they have this journey. Something about this migration, it really feeds back into the 19th century in the United States. The sphere of cholera is already part of United States culture of cholera is already part of the United States culture. Your research has focused a lot on death along this trail. When people did die, what happened . How did they deal with it . That for immigrants is an even bigger challenge than dying. In the 19th century, the idea is this is something that is part of life, its an opportunity to and to share your religious thoughts with assembled family and friends. Once there is a body, that wasnt a huge problem. Bodiese used to burying in acceptable cemeteries. On the trail they dont have wood for coffins, they dont have stone and wood for carving a headstone, so they are forced to improvise. Part of the a major loss of this experience, not only the loss of the persons life, but the loss of the ability to properly commemorate and mark their bodies. So they would leave the body along the trail . Yes, sometimes they would try to identify a landmark feature that might help them for later visits to the grave. They found a tree on the plain, or if there was a slight rise. Sometimes its about expediency, they pulled up to the side of the road and the body is there. What was the impact on these people in terms of their religion . Did they have funerals along the trail . Question,ts a great and they did try to conduct those types of services as much as possible. They would have bibles with them and other books. Even if they werent trained preachers or ministers, they could use that has something to create more of a proper ceremony. You mentioned disease as being one of the major causes of death. What other causes of death were there along the trail . Sarah disease was the primary cause, and then accidents. This can take a range of forms. It could be drownings in the river. Run over by a wagon, or accidental shooting, which increased significantly during the gold rush because there were more firearms on the trail. There was a government subsidy that they were selling guns to immigrants who were heading out west. Sometimes there were accidental sarah exactly. I mentioned the fear of indians. Theres a pattern in which one man might leave the camp to find a cow thats been lost or say hi to a friend in another camp and he might return after dark and his companions might be worried that he is an approaching indian and he gets shot. That happens. Almost se groups almost always travel in these large wagon trains . Sarah it depends. Cholera inspire some people to adeak off from the main ro because they know thats for cholera is. More people traveled in companies. That could change shape as they travel. Its a five to six month journey. People can get in fights, they could break up and reconfigure. Your research is focused on the 1840 to 1860s. Why have you honed in on that period . Those are the major years of trail travel. That is what most historians focus on. I think this narrative has to be understood. You have a lot of memoirs, commemoration, and reminiscence coming out in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The trail straddles the civil war and reconstruction period. It goes through the civil war of through the period commemorating the war. But its a totally different story. The trail is about expanding the nation, building it in the west. Ways ininteresting which those narratives interact with each other. I have one goldrush immigrant saying, we are talking about the civil war debt but we cant eath but wee who d cant forget those who died on the trail. More about where you are finding these stories about families and individuals . Some majore are repositories in the United States that have a lot of these documents. They are at major academic institutional libraries. It goes on and on. When of the great things about the trail, and one of the things ive benefited from is people who are interested in this topic and who have spent a lot of time collecting resources and documenting them. The oregoncalifornia trail association, they have done an incredible amount of work collecting sources and also producing summary notes. I have benefited from that a lot as well. Depending on where the viewers are, somebody in the community has them in there and next. You want to publish this research . Sarah i do. Id done the dissertation and im working on the book. Do you have any idea when it might be finished . Hopefully in a few years. Thank you for joining us. Youre watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook at cspan history. This is hillary clinton. I want to thank you for letting me speak to you about an issue that is critical to our childrens future, solving our Nations Health care crisis. There is no prescription or role for being first lady. The future is created every day. The future is not something that is out there waiting to happen to us. The future is something that we make. I have said and i believe that theres a good possibility that years,me in the next 20 we will have a woman president. Hillary clinton experience many firsts in her role as first lady. She and husband president bill clinton have been political partner since law school. Severalendured scandals, including his impeachment, as she considers a second for the white house, her story is still being written. Hillary clinton, this sunday night at 8 00 a. M. Eastern on cspans original series, first ladies, influence and image. Their influence on the presidency, for Martha Washington to michelle obama, sunday eight at one eastern on American History tv on cspan3. Next, author charlie schroeder. His bookstore in pasadena posted the 50 minute event in 2012. You very much. Thank you to my favorite bookstore in the world. My wife and i live in burbank. In pasadena. You can usually find me in the history section camped out here. I am obsessed with this bookstore and i support it. Thed to look up gimlet in dictionary. I thought it was a drink. It is sharp. I had to look at the derivation of it. It was a nice review