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The plains across : the overland emigrants and the trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60 /
This volume presents a study of overland travel across the Great Plains of the United States prior to the Civil War. It covers mainly the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. The author provides excerpts from the traveler's journals and diaries, along with references from various newspapers t...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Urbana :
University of Illinois Press,
©1979.
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| Subjects and Genres: | |
| Online Access: | Table of contents |
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Table of Contents:
- Introduction: The historians and the Overlanders
- Public opinion, 1840-48 : "Palpable homicide" or "Merry as a marriage bell"?
- Public opinion, 1849-60 : humbugging and helping
- Motivations and beginnings : "Life is at a fair"
- Emigrant interaction : "Our journey has not been as solitary as we feared"
- Emigrant-Indian interaction : from "mutual aid" to "massacres"
- The federal government : "Good fellow Uncle Sam is"
- Private entrepreneurs, 1840-49 : "While others are chasing wealth they are catching it, no dream"
- Private entrepreneurs, 1950-60 : "Too many cooks spoil the broth"
- The Mormon "halfway house" : "It costs nothing to get in, but a great deal to get out"
- West Coast assistance : "Are you men from California, or do you come from heaven?"
- The Overlanders in historical perspective : "To endure heat like a salamander ... and labor like a jackass."