HIST 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Move, Takers
29 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Geographical and occupaional mobility: 19th century: most americans believed in the safety valve theory of western expansion. The theory postulated that the availability of land made it possible for the landless to move west and become farmers. Meant that there were never large numbers of urban poor in the east. Two kinds of mobility: occupaional mobility-verical mobility, geographical mobility-horizontal mobility. Between 1840 and 1860: approximately 300,000 american migrated. West: 200,000 to california, 53,000 to oregon, 43,000 to utah. Myths of mobility: free land in the west provided a safety valve of opportunity for wealth and prevented the growth of a class of poor urban workers in the east (geographical mobility=democracy) Western immigrants were not landless: about 90% f the emigrants on the overland trail to california and oregon in the 1840"s were farmers from the midwest. Most western emigrants had already migrated from the. Perceived migraion as a way to beter their social condiion: sought cheap land for their families.
