The Loss of Life for Americans Trying to Fulfill Manifest Destiny Was High

So, let's talk about how the loss of life for Americans trying to fulfill Manifest Destiny was high. But first, let's recognize that the California Gold Rush dramatically accelerated the "American Westward Expansion" by drawing hundreds of thousands of people to the West. That influx of settlers fueled the idea of Manifest Destiny.

The phrase "Manifest Destiny" was first used by newspaper editor John O'Sullivan in 1845. He created the term to advocate for the United States to annex Texas. Coined by John O'Sullivan, his idea was that America was "divinely ordained" to expand and settle across the entire North American continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Let's remember that it was his opinion that God wanted the United States to settle all of the territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  

If you're wondering why I put "divinely ordained" in quotes, it's because it seems to me that many people throughout human history have felt that God, or their Gods, have ordained certain things. Belief in divine ordering of something, the idea that events, rulers, or natural laws are chosen or controlled by God or a god or a deity of some sort, is a deeply rooted pattern that we find when looking at human history. 

European medieval and early modern monarchs have claimed the "divine right of kings," which asserts that they were "chosen directly by God and answerable to no earthly authority." Those rulers have used, and in some cases still do use, the belief that the "divine right of kings" justifies their territorial expansion, total rule, and the consolidation of borders. They frame it to legitimize their political sovereignty by saying they are an extension of divine will.

Many ancient civilizations, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Roman Empire, all viewed their leaders as living gods, demigods, or direct intermediaries of the divine. And yes, some not so "ancient" civilizations have as well.

A good example of not so "ancient" civilization is the situation with Hawaiian King Kamehameha who believed that he was ordained by his gods to conquer the peoples of other islands. And yes, he did so at a high cost of lives to the Hawaiian people as well as the peoples of those other islands. It's true. The myth about Hawaiians being a peaceful people that British explorer Captain James Cook met when he reached the islands on January 18, 1778 is a myth. 

The Hawaiians were warring people. In fact, warfare, political competition, and territorial conquest were deeply embedded parts of their civilization in pre-contact history. British explorer Captain James Cook learned this when he noted that high chiefs regularly launched large-scale naval and land campaigns using double-hulled canoes to conquer neighboring islands and expand their domains. 

Of course, for King Kamehameha, without European warfighting arms and technology, he probably wouldn't have been able to fulfill his own belief in his personal "Manifest Destiny." Remember, he believed that he was ordained by his gods to conquer other people. To do that, King Kamehameha used Western weapons, cannons, and foreign advisors like John Young to modernize his military capabilities. But then again, that's an inconvenient point of fact that Hawaiian history revisionists prefer not to discuss.

Revisionist history teachers in Hawaii who work very hard at portraying Europeans as "bad people" who "colonized" Hawaii without the Hawaiian Monarchy realizing what was being done -- as if the Hawaiian Monarchy sat by helpless, passive, and ignorant of what was taking place. While that's what's being portrayed today, in reality, the Hawaiian Monarchy was highly literate, globally connected, and strategically engaged in defending its sovereignty. Why didn't the Hawaiian people rise up to defend the Queen in 1893 when she was overthrown is something that I've wondered about for years. And yes, it's something to discuss on another day. 

As for King Kamehameha, he believed Hawaiian gods (Kuka'ilimoku) and ancient prophecies destined him to unite the islands. That's wasn't out of the ordinary for Hawaii since at the top of their social pyramid was the Aliʻi Nui who was viewed as the "head" of society. According to their culture, the Aliʻi Nui had a bloodline tracing directly back to the gods. Their authority and right to rule were validated by their mana, which was seen as their spiritual and supernatural power.

American newspaper editor John O'Sullivan coined the term "Manifest Destiny" because he felt that the Christian God destined the United State to expand across North America from ocean to ocean. He believed that God empowered the United States to spread across North America. I don't much difference between what he believed and what King Kamehameha believed when it comes to divine destiny.

King Kamehameha and John O'Sullivan used divine right to justify massive geopolitical expansion. Whether it is the Hawaiian concept of mana or the American concept of a Christian God’s will, both ideologies claim that a higher power chose a specific people or leader to take control of a vast territory.

I'm sure I'll get more hate mail if I say, I believe that Hawaiian King Kamehameha's belief that conquering other islands was in line with what his gods wanted -- was the same as the concept of "Manifest Destiny" promoted by newspaper editor John O'Sullivan. But really, if we really look at it, it all comes down to similar concepts that rely on a belief in divine sanction to justify expansion and territorial consolidation. 

For the United States at the time, it was all about absorbing territories to expand and stabilize its sovereign nation. For King Kamehameha in his time, it was all about absorbing territories to expand his sovereign kingdom. 

And yes, historical and archaeological evidence strongly supports the fact that warfare, violence, territorial competition, and that same sort of territorial expansion existed among Native American tribes long before European contact. So yes, Native American tribes also waged war against other tribes while believing that they were destined to absorb the territories of others to expand their lands -- because their gods wanted it that way. 

Various Native American tribes, long before Europeans ever set foot on American soil, felt that their Gods meant for them to have certain lands at the expense of war with other tribes. In fact, many Native American tribes held such deeply spiritual relationships with specific landscapes, believing their creators or deities had designated those territories specifically for them, that they displaced other Native Americans. 

It's true. Long before European contact, this sense of divine right or sacred geography often intersected with intertribal warfare, territorial defense, and expansion which also caused other tribes to be displaced after being forced out of territories. So no, don't make the mistake of thinking that displacing Native Americans was an exclusive result of American settlers and pioneers coming West. Native Americans too displaced many of their Native American enemy tribes.  

It is a complex dynamic in pre-colonial and early American history. The deeply spiritual connection between Native American tribes and their ancestral lands is well-documented. However, historic records show that tribes seeking "sacred geography" resulted in warfare that did in fact force migrations long before and during early European contact. 

The displacement of the Sioux (the Great Sioux Nation), spanning the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota from the woodlands of modern-day Minnesota and Wisconsin serves as an excellent historical example of this domino effect. Their conflict with the Ojibwe (Chippewa) is well documented. It shows that originally, the Sioux were a semi-sedentary, woodland people whose spiritual and economic lives revolved around the lakes, rivers, and forests of the upper Midwest. 

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Ojibwe (Chippewa) began migrating into the Great Lakes region and forced the Sioux to leave their ancestral homeland. Pushed out the Sioux through wars of conquest was no different than what happened to them later in the Black Hills by the United States.

While the concept of "Manifest Destiny" is a specific 19th-century American political doctrine, the underlying idea that gods sanctioned a people's claim to a homeland was present in various forms among indigenous cultures globally, including in North America. And yes, in many cases, genocidal war took place between tribes and nations over the concept that their Gods meant for them to have certain lands.

So if we look at all of human history, I don't think it's out of the ordinary for Americans in the 19th century to have believed that the United States was divinely ordained to expand across the North American continent. After all, other nations did it for as long as nations have been around. And frankly, I don't see Americans in the 19th Century believing that America was guided by God to go West, as a concept that was that much different from what many people around the world have thought at different points in human history. 

The core idea behind "Manifest Destiny" to expand from one ocean to the other, atucally influenced a great many Americans and provided a powerful rationale for Westward migration, despite the high cost in American lives. And yes, besides the thousands of lives lost during the Mexican-American War, the cost in American lives, those settlers and pioneers who died trying to go West, was extremely high.

 
The extremely high loss of life to fulfill the idea of "Manifest Destiny" is the part of "Manifest Destiny" that no one talks about. 

While I hear people talking about how American Westward expansion forced the displacement of Native American populations, and people do talk about how Manifest Destiny played a significant role in the displacement of some Native American tribes, they also talk about the role American Westward expansion played in the annexation of Texas -- and about the impact that American Westward expansion had on the acquisition of territories from Mexico after the Mexican-American War. 

Yes, people talk about how the addition of new territories fueled debates over slavery and increased tensions between the North and South. Of course, American Westward expansion is what made Democrats fight so hard to expand Slavery into the West. And whether some like it or not, it is a fact that Republican efforts to stop Democrats from forcing their need for African Slaves in new territories is what inevitably pushed America into a Civil War. The Republican Party was founded in 1854 with a core platform dedicated to stopping the expansion of Slavery into new U.S. territories.

But, for some strange reason, I never hear people talk about the cost of American lives, or how much blood, treasure, and hard work it took to fulfill Manifest Destiny -- and the idea of Americans having to go West because God intended for that to take place. There is never a mention of the thousands of American settlers and pioneers who died expanding and spreading the American culture or attempting to spread America's democratic ideals across the continent.

 
So how bad was it in the case of lives lost? 

Well, there are factors that complicate getting an accurate toll of how many Americans died attempting to fulfill the dream of "manifest destiny." A dream for many that turned into a nightmare. 

For example, because of the lack of accurate records, it is almost impossible to know the exact number of settler deaths along the trail. One reason is the unrecorded burials. It's true. Graves were often unmarked to protect them from vandals or were intentionally placed in the wagon trail to be trampled over, making them undetectable to animals that might dig them up. 

And frankly, between 1841 and 1869, anywhere from 350,000 to 400,000 Americans embarked on the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails. Estimates suggest that anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 or more American settlers died on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails during the 20-year span between 1840 and 1860. 

That means that about 1 in 10, or 1 in 8, settlers who attempted the journey died along the way. And really, those figures don't capture the overall death toll for settlers during the entire era of Westward expansion, which also includes the countless lives lost in other conflicts, accidents, and diseases. To be realistic, about 1 in 5 people during that period died from all sorts of things, including disease, accidents, the weather, starvation, violence, and dumb decisions.

 
The leading cause of death for American settlers was disease. Settlers faced immense hardships that tested their physical and psychological limits. Deadly diseases is always talked about wiping out Native Americans, but never talked about in the context that deadly diseases were the biggest killer of Americans coming West on the trail, not conflict. That was the greatest killer on the trails, in mining camps, towns, on homesteads, farms, ranches, and other settlements. 

Cholera outbreaks could devastate an entire wagon train in days, killing healthy individuals within hours of their first symptoms. Cholera was the most feared and deadly disease. It is caused by bacteria that thrive in unsanitary water and can kill a healthy person within hours. Dysentery, smallpox, and mountain fever were also rampant due to poor sanitation and contaminated water holes. Typhoid, dysentery, smallpox, measles, and influenza were also common due to poor hygiene and the close quarters of most temporary camps. 

As for fighting Mother Nature? Emigrants coming West had to time their departures perfectly. Leaving too early meant no grass for their livestock. Of course, leaving too late meant risking getting trapped in deadly winter mountain snows, famously suffered by the Donner Party. It's true. Severe storms and early snowfalls trapped some parties, leading to starvation, as in the case of the Donner Party where 35 people died. Of course, the Donner Party is a prime example of the consequences of a poor decision. And yes, their decision to proceed over the Sierra Mountains when they did was dumb.

Travelers endured blistering desert heat, torrential thunderstorms, and treacherous river crossings that frequently drowned people and livestock. The weather could be lethal. Extreme heat, thunderstorms, lightning, and deadly hailstones all posed risks to traveling settlers. 

As for bison stampedes? Yes, they could also cause injuries and wreak havoc on wagon trains. As for bear attacks, there are documented instances of attacks occurring when settlers set out from their wagon trains in search of game. 

Of course, just because people made it to where they were going, it didn't mean they would survive. The death toll statistics of those making the journey don't include the deaths of settlers who died in less-documented land acquisition, skirmishes, new homesteads, on farms, ranches, in towns, mining camps and mines, in mills, and in forests falling trees, on ships, during the building of the railroad. And yes, while in reality relatively uncommon compared to dying from disease, starvation, and accidents, deaths from Native American conflicts did take place. Of course, it is impossible to determine exactly how many lives of settlers were lost in various battles and skirmishes throughout the decades of Westward expansion. 

While many accounts regarding attacks by Native Americans were exaggerated and sensationalized, and some were overreported in contemporary accounts to sell newspapers, the events did happen. And really, while people talk about Manifest Destiny, they focus on the expansion of the United States, but the expansion itself also led to violent conflicts with Native Americans. Those conflicts, big and small, and while not always noted, resulted in numerous settler deaths. One example is during the 1862 Dakota War, when over 1,000 white settlers were killed or captured by rebelling Dakota Sioux. 

Sadly though, Hollywood often portrays Native Americans as the primary threat to settlers. In reality, early interactions between Settlers going West and Native American tribes were largely based on trade and guiding. While conflicts and raids did occur and intensify later in the century, we should note that Settlers were far more likely to die from drownings or firearm accidents than from an Indian attack.

As for deaths by criminals, those outlaws who stole and murdered? Widespread lawlessness and the resulting vigilantism did take place for a reason. It's a fact that, along with the good, comes the bad, even during the Western expansion. What took place during the rapid, often chaotic, expansion into new territories was the creation of conditions that led to lawlessness. This resulted in a high incidence of crime, particularly in newly settled mining and cattle towns. 

The rise of vigilante justice? 

Yes, as you've heard me talk about before, from mining camps to new towns springing up, there was no organized law enforcement. So yes, the people had to create what they already knew as "Citizens Committees," also known as "Vigilance Committees." And with official law enforcement often sparse and ineffective, settler communities formed vigilante groups to enforce their own versions of justice, often with brutality. 

This led to lynchings and summary executions. Was it effective in deterring crime? In most cases, it was. Of course, as is in life, some outlaws were too stupid to understand that the outlaw life was not a really healthy way of life until they were dancing on the end of a rope under some lone tree. 

The romanticized image of the American outlaw arose from this era of lawlessness. Figures like Jesse James and Butch Cassidy, who committed acts of horrible violence and theft, ironically became iconic figures in the frontier mythology because they were sensationalized. In reality, as life in the West became more settled, the crime rate in the West did come down. This was mainly because most residents were armed and outlaws were dealt shift Western Justice accordingly.  

As for accidents that took lives in the pursuit of Manifest Destiny? 

Well, accidents along the way West were a constant danger. During the journey West, wagon accidents occurred frequently, with children and adults falling under the wheels and being crushed. River crossings were particularly perilous, and drowning was a common cause of death. Actually, drownings were a significant risk, especially during perilous river crossings where swift currents could capsize wagons. Gunshot wounds, often self-inflicted by inexperienced gun owners, were also common.

If memory serves me right, long before the outlaw Johnny Ringo became famous and his family journeyed to San Jose, California, in a wagon train, he lost his father as a result of a gun accident. It's said that he was pulling a shotgun out of a wagon from the muzzle when it went off. It killed him instantly. And yes, he was buried in an unmarked grave along the trail. 

During the 1800s, accidents, especially those we would today term "occupational accidents," were often caused by hazardous industrial work, primitive and dangerous machinery, inadequate ventilation, and a lack of safety regulations, resulting in injuries such as lost limbs, burns, and fatalities from explosions and collapses. In the West, common industries such as mining, logging, and fishing were especially perilous, with workers facing risks on a daily basis. 

For example, in the case of fishing, it wasn't unusual for capsize-prone fishing vessels and severe storms to result in high mortality rates among fishermen. And yes, buildings, especially mines, could collapse due to structural flaws or explosions, trapping and killing workers. Miners faced risks from explosions, toxic gases, and mine collapses on a daily basis.

In mills, exposed gears, moving belts, and unguarded blades on machines led to amputations and other severe injuries. Lack of safety regulations, poor ventilation, and crowded environments increased the risk of accidents and illness. Of course, fires and explosions were frequent. For example, from flour dust in mills to methane gas in mines, faulty steam boilers in factories and on trains, fires, and explosions were frequent causes of death and injury.

So yes, besides the large number of Americans who died heading West, Manifest Destiny created harsh conditions and devastating consequences for Native Americans and American settlers alike.

The perilous journey, traveling Westward on trails like the Oregon Trail, was a long, difficult, and dangerous ordeal that lasted for months. American pioneers faced brutal weather, starvation, and diseases like cholera, which in many cases wiped out entire wagon trains. Of course, after arriving, they found frontier life brutal.

In most instances, settlers, especially those who moved to the Great Plains, found it difficult to cultivate the dry, tough soil with limited rainfall. Many homes were poorly constructed from mud, and the lack of supplies made for an extremely tough existence. And, in reality, many faced financial failure since the cost of starting a farm was high, and many who took advantage of acts like the Homestead Act were unable to make their farms profitable. Many failed and ended up working as migrant laborers for larger commercial farms.

So, please, when discussing Manifest Destiny, let's not make the mistake of portraying it as though it was a cake walk for American settlers heading West.

 
What it took to fulfill Manifest Destiny was a grueling, brutal, and often deadly ordeal for the American settlers who chose to travel West. The romanticized image of peaceful covered wagons rolling across sunlit prairies completely masks the harsh realities of the overland trails. 

The journey required walking up to 2,000 miles, often barefoot or in poorly made shoes, as wagons were saved for supplies, the sick, and the elderly. Accidental gunshots, crush injuries from wagon wheels, and livestock stampedes were common sources of severe injury and death.

The sheer isolation, loss of loved ones buried in unmarked graves along the trail, and the constant fear of the unknown caused massive psychological strain. So please, don't think that Manifest Destiny was an inevitable triumphant march. In reality, it was a high-stakes gamble where thousands of Americans paid with their lives.

For Americans, the concept of Manifest Destiny became a powerful ideology that drove Americans Westward. The migration was spurred on the belief that the United States was divinely ordained to expand across the North American continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This belief successfully convinced millions of Americans to risk their lives and fortunes to move West. It worked because it was framed our territorial expansion at the time as not just as a political goal, but as a moral duty.

In the 1800s, proponents argued that God wanted Americans to spread American ideals across the continent. That and the promise of cheap, fertile land, and resources like gold outweighed the terrifying risks of the journey for many families. Of course, for the folks in Washington D.C., they saw expanding the nation's borders as a way to keep European powers like Great Britain and Spain from dominating North America. So all in all, it was a win-win situation if you survived. Let's remember that point. There was no guarantee that they would survive the journey, or life once they arrived. 

The stark realities of Manifest Destiny in the 19th century depended on whether they even survived to see it. Driven by a belief that justified America's Westward expansion, American settlers faced many hardships and a huge death toll. Yes, the loss of life for Americans trying to fulfill Manifest Destiny was high. 

Let's remember that most of the families coming West sold all their possessions to afford the journey, and faced a high rate of financial failure or total loss upon arrival. Today, the focus is not on the grit, resilience, and tenacity of those settlers and pioneers. 

So let's focus on Americans making that perilous journey Westward in search of economic independence, religious freedom, or a better life for their families. Let's look at how Americans still believe that achieving self-sufficiency through hard work is a powerful motivator -- one that reinforces the American ideal of choosing one's own destiny. 

Faced with extreme hardships, including harsh weather, rugged terrain, infectious diseases, and severe shortages of food and water, they survived against overwhelming odds. And while their willingness to push forward despite a high rate of failure and immense loss of life is celebrated as a testament to human endurance, their ability to push forward against the odds is part of the guiding beliefs, core values, and characteristic spirit, which Americans see as a foundational element of our cultural identity.

So let's refrain from criticizing or belittling, especially in an unfair manner, or disparaging and downplaying what those American pioneers accomplished. Those American pioneers, those who followed the promise of Manifest Destiny, faced extreme difficulties, a high rate of failure, at a huge loss of life. And for that, they should be admired for their tenacity. 

Tom Correa