Westward Movement
Watch American Grow
Westward Expansion and Its Impact on Slavery
West of the Mississippi River. Explorers like Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, and Zebulon Pike paved the way for pioneers to move westward. This expansion caused harm to Native Americans, and impacted the institution of slavery.
Daniel Boone
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Zebulon Pike
Manifest Destiny
Americans began to justify their westward expansion with the idea of Manifest Destiny, a God given right to expand and claim lands from coast to coast, or from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
This painting ( 1872) by John Gast called American Progress. Here Columbia, a personification of the United States, leads westward with American settlers. She holds a school book as well. The different stages of pioneer travelers are seen, as well as the changing forms of transportation.
United States Land Acquisitions
Click on the website below and watch how the United States grew from 13 colonies to 50 states!
www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/books/applications/imaps/maps/g5s_u5/