Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion A Brief History with Documents

The new edition of Amy Greenberg’s Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion continues to emphasize the social and cultural roots of Manifest Destiny when exploring the history of U.S. territorial expansion. With a revised introduction and several new documents, this second edition includes new coverage of the global context of Manifest Destiny, the early settlement of Texas, and the critical role of women in America’s territorial expansion. Students are introduced to the increasingly influential transnational concept of settler colonialism, while maintaining a central focus on the ideological origins, social and economic impetus, and territorial acquisitions that fueled U.S. territorial expansion in the nineteenth century. Readers of the revised edition will also find an updated bibliography reflecting both the historiography of American expansion and its transnational context, as well as updated questions for consideration.

Foreword

Preface

List of Maps

The Ideological Origins of Manifest Destiny

Territorial Expansion in the Early Republic

Factors Driving Early Expansionism

U.S. Expansion in a World Context

Expansionism and Indian People

Social Transformations and the Birth of Aggressive Expansionism

Opposing Voices

Andrew Jackson and the March to the Southwest

The Overland Trail

Annexation and War with Mexico

Filibustering: Taking Matters into Their Own Hands

Sectionalism Checks Manifest Destiny

After the Civil War: Manifest Destiny Reevaluated and Redeemed

1. William Bradford, Of Plimoth Plantation, 1650

2. John Winthrop, A Modell of Christian Charity, 1630

3. Richard Butler, A Commissioner’s View of the Ohio River Valley, 1785

4. Council of 1793, To the Commissioners of the United States, August 16, 1793

5. Jedidiah Morse, The American Geography, 1792

6. Fisher Ames, Letter to Thomas Dwight, October 31, 1803

7. Thomas Jefferson, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1805

8. Tecumseh, Appeal to the Osages, 1811

9. John Quincy Adams, Diary Entry, November 16, 1819

10. Andrew Jackson, State of the Union Address, December 6, 1830

11. Black Hawk, Encroachment by White Settlers, 1832

12. Memorial and Protest of the Cherokee Nation, June 22, 1836

13. Lyman Beecher, A Plea for the West, 1835

14. Harriet Martineau, On Land-Lust in America, 1837

15. Pathin-nanpaji, An Encounter between Omaha Hunters and White Squatters in Iowa, 1853

16. Zenas Leonard, A Fur Trapper’s View of Manifest Destiny, 1839

17. Richard Henry Dana, Two Years before the Mast, 1840

18. Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Young American, 1844

19. Manuel Mier y Teran, Letter to President Guadalupe Victoria, June 30, 1828

20. Mary Austin Holley, Texas, January 8, 1833

21. Robert J. Walker, Letter in Favor of the Reannexation of Texas, January 8, 1844

22. Daniel Webster, Letter to the Citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts, January 23, 1844

23. James K. Polk, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1845

24. Uncle Sam’s Song to Miss Texas, 1845

25. United States Democratic Review, Annexation, July-August 1845

26. Robert Winthrop, Arbitration of the Oregon Question, January 3, 1846

27. James K. Polk, Diary Entry, June 30, 1846

28. Jane Swisshelm, Protesting the Mexican War, 1880

29. Godey’s Lady’s Book, Life on the Rio Grande, April 1847

30. Henry Clay, Speech at Lexington, Kentucky, November 13, 1847

31. New York Herald, Public Meeting in Favor of Annexing All of Mexico, January 30, 1848

32. Ramon Alcaraz et al., Origin of the War with the United States, 1848

6. Expanded Horizons: Cuba, Hawaii, and Central America
33. La Verdad, Appeal to the Inhabitants of Cuba, April 27, 1848

34. Cora Montgomery, The Benefits of Annexing Cuba, 1850

35. James Buchanan, Pierre Soule, and John Y. Mason, The Ostend Manifesto, 1854

36. Currier and Ives, The "Ostend Doctrine": Practical Democrats Carrying Out the Principle, 1856

37. T. Robinson Warren, Traveling through the Pacific, 1859

38. Young Sam, Nicaragua Ho!, January 1856

39. Martin Delany, Political Destiny of the Colored Race on the American Continent, August 24, 1854

40. Mary Seacole, A Jamaican’s View of Americans in Panama, 1857

41. William Walker, The War in Nicaragua, 1860

42. George Sydney Hawkins, Hostility to Southern Interests, May 31, 1858

43. William Waters Boyce, Why Southerners Should Oppose Territorial Expansion, January 15, 1855

44. George A. Crofutt, American Progress, ca. 1873

45. Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, Trouble on the Paiute Reservation, 1865

46. Reverend George Grant, Destiny of the British Provinces, 1877

47. Albert J. Beveridge, The March of the Flag, September 16, 1898

A Chronology of Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion (1620-1902)

Questions for Consideration

Selected Bibliography