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"Distance and inadequate training in agricultural pursuits closed the frontier t...

Aug 30, 2023

*Question*"Distance and inadequate training in agricultural pursuits closed the frontier to eastern workingmen; instead America was settled by successive waves of farmers who were already skilled in wresting a living from the soil. Farming, even before the day of mechanization, was a highly technical profession; frontiering required a knowledge of even more specialized techniques. Clearing the land, building a home, fencing fields, solving the problem of defense, and planting crops on virgin soil all demanded experience few workingmen could boast " trappers and leatherclad 'Mountain Men.' Romantic characters took part [in frontier migration]: starry-eyed prospectors and hard-riding cowboys, badmen and vigilantes. But the true hero of the tale was the hard-working farmer who, ax in hand, marched ever westward until the boundaries of his nation touched the Pacific." Ray Allen Billington, historian, Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier, 1949 "The rapid expansion of wagework in the United States and the most intensive phase of the exploitation and settlement of the western third of the continent were roughly contemporaneous processes that occurred during a seventy-year interval [beginning in 1848]. Yet, at first glance, the terms frontier and wagework seem In actuality, one such conjunction [of these terms] was the to describe mutually exclusive conditions wageworkers' frontier. " The wageworkers' frontier was foremost a predominantly male community of manual labor dependent upon others for wages in the extractive industries of the sparsely settled Rocky Mountain and Pacific regions of the United States It also represented a zone of extremely rapid transition from The wageworkers' frontier was a fragile entity forever at the wilderness to industrial, post-frontier society. mercy of the outside world's pricing of its basic [export] commodities All [commodities] were shipped to constitute a out of the west because the Rocky Mountain and Pacific regions contained too few people viable home market. Settlements on the wageworkers' frontier tended to resemble factory towns in Pennsylvania or Massachusetts." Carlos A. Schwantes, historian, "The Concept of the Wageworkers' Frontier," 1987 1. Using the excerpts, respond to parts a. b. and c. a. Briefly describe one major difference between Billington's and Schwantes' historical interpretations of the American West. b. Briefly explain how one historical event or development from 1848 to 1898 that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts could be used to support Billington's interpretation. c. Briefly explain how one historical event or development from 1848 to 1898 that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts could be used to support Schwantes' interpretation.*Question**Answer*a Billington explains that farmers were primarily responsible for westward expansion in the United States. However, Schwantes' interpretation places wageworkers at the forefront of westward expansion. b After the Civil War, the Homestead Act allowed veterans to gain western farming land. This caused more farmers to move west and cultivate the land, supporting Billington's interpretation. C The New York Gold Rush caused a huge influx of people in the extractive industry. This large increase in population proves that wageworkers were pushing America's frontier thereby proving Schwantes interpretation*Answer*

Grading Rubric

A successful short-answer response accomplishes all three tasks set forth by the prompt. Each part of the prompt is worth 1 point, for a total of 3 possible points. (a) To earn the point, the response must describe a significant difference between the authors' interpretations, specifically addressing the claims of both passages. For the first passage, the response should describe Billington's argument about the American West being settled by skilled farmers and the romanticized figures of the frontier. For the second passage, the response should describe Schwantes' argument that the American West was a wageworkers' frontier, a zone of rapid transition from wilderness to industrial society, dependent on the extractive industries. (b) To earn the point, the response must identify a specific historical event or development from 1848-1898 and use reasoning or evidence to explain how that event or development supports Billington's claim about the settlement of the American West. Examples could include the Homestead Act of 1862, which provided free land to settlers willing to farm it, or the California Gold Rush of 1849, which drew a variety of individuals to the West. (c) To earn the point, the response must identify a specific historical event or development from 1848-1898 and use reasoning or evidence to explain how that event or development supports Schwantes' claim about the wageworkers' frontier. Examples could include the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, which required a large labor force and transformed the West, or the discovery of silver in Nevada in 1859, which led to a boom in mining and the growth of wage labor in the region.

Score earned

*&3/3&* The student's answer earns all 3 points according to the grading rubric. For part (a), the student correctly identifies a major difference between Billington's and Schwantes' interpretations of the American West, earning 1 point. For part (b), the student correctly identifies the Homestead Act as a historical event that supports Billington's interpretation, earning 1 point. For part (c), the student correctly identifies the New York Gold Rush as a historical event that supports Schwantes' interpretation, earning 1 point.