Letters of Western Expansion
https://postalmuseum.si.edu/letterwriting/lw03.html
As people began to expand toward the west, they wrote letters that kept connections back home and to create connections across the frontier, all holding news. Letters were the bond keeping together the vast and different country, pre Civil War. The west started attracting Americans, especially impoverished ones, to move into the territory as an opportunity for a new life. In 1826, a Quaker family, Joseph Bentley, his wife Anna Briggs, and their four children, set out to the west from of their debts, bad investments, and minimal business experience. Anna sent letters home throughout the journey to keep her relationship with her native land. Anna mentions, "as if I should visit it again," in one of her letters which was relevant to how travel back then was difficult. In 1847, Anna did go back home to see her mother and announce that she was a grandmother now, giving example of how Anna's constant connection from her letters to her family gave them a chance to stay close and also give insight into the west. Her letters were thorough and detailed on the western lifestyle, keeping her family acquainted and even giving us a picture of the western American family. Another frequently moving families were the Christians missionaries, who believed it was their duty to expand the Christian faith to the natives. One of the families, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, embarked on the journey west to fulfill their duty and while doing so, Narcissa wrote letters back home to New York. The letters took awhile to arrive from the lack of messengers to send the letter from a post office. One of her letters included a warning to her family that she may never see them again, which was true seeing as in 1847 the natives of the Cayuse tribe became angry over the amount of new diseases spreading and massacred the mission settlement, killing 14 people including the Whitmans. Most letters were like that along the West, but were the epitome of communication to the country. The letters either warmed a heart or left one broken. A different kind of expansion sparked in the east, the development of farms to factories and the need for workers, recruiting women to come into the city to work by letters explaining the attraction. Though, by 1820, weaving and spinning were no longer hand done, the job still set on the women to man the machines. Letters revealed it was the ideal choice and that the women enjoyed working them, the hours didn't vary from the ones the women had on the farms and payment was involved. Letters between the mill lands and the families provided them to keep close and inform them on familial news, such as weddings, births, and deaths. The letters from the women arrived pretty quickly due to how the factories were not that far away from home. All letters from the Frontier could take several months to arrive, such as the Whitmans' and Briggs' letters. The railroad then being invented, in 1837, provided a new, more convenient way of postal service to specific locations. The Railway Mail Service would epitomize the transcontinental post, beginning after the Civil War all the way to World War II.
As people began to expand toward the west, they wrote letters that kept connections back home and to create connections across the frontier, all holding news. Letters were the bond keeping together the vast and different country, pre Civil War. The west started attracting Americans, especially impoverished ones, to move into the territory as an opportunity for a new life. In 1826, a Quaker family, Joseph Bentley, his wife Anna Briggs, and their four children, set out to the west from of their debts, bad investments, and minimal business experience. Anna sent letters home throughout the journey to keep her relationship with her native land. Anna mentions, "as if I should visit it again," in one of her letters which was relevant to how travel back then was difficult. In 1847, Anna did go back home to see her mother and announce that she was a grandmother now, giving example of how Anna's constant connection from her letters to her family gave them a chance to stay close and also give insight into the west. Her letters were thorough and detailed on the western lifestyle, keeping her family acquainted and even giving us a picture of the western American family. Another frequently moving families were the Christians missionaries, who believed it was their duty to expand the Christian faith to the natives. One of the families, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, embarked on the journey west to fulfill their duty and while doing so, Narcissa wrote letters back home to New York. The letters took awhile to arrive from the lack of messengers to send the letter from a post office. One of her letters included a warning to her family that she may never see them again, which was true seeing as in 1847 the natives of the Cayuse tribe became angry over the amount of new diseases spreading and massacred the mission settlement, killing 14 people including the Whitmans. Most letters were like that along the West, but were the epitome of communication to the country. The letters either warmed a heart or left one broken. A different kind of expansion sparked in the east, the development of farms to factories and the need for workers, recruiting women to come into the city to work by letters explaining the attraction. Though, by 1820, weaving and spinning were no longer hand done, the job still set on the women to man the machines. Letters revealed it was the ideal choice and that the women enjoyed working them, the hours didn't vary from the ones the women had on the farms and payment was involved. Letters between the mill lands and the families provided them to keep close and inform them on familial news, such as weddings, births, and deaths. The letters from the women arrived pretty quickly due to how the factories were not that far away from home. All letters from the Frontier could take several months to arrive, such as the Whitmans' and Briggs' letters. The railroad then being invented, in 1837, provided a new, more convenient way of postal service to specific locations. The Railway Mail Service would epitomize the transcontinental post, beginning after the Civil War all the way to World War II.
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