By: Cheaun
Pioneers went west for many reasons. Our president Thomas Jefferson was interested in going west because a few whites went there. Not only were there whites that went to the west but the Native Americans were the first that lived in the west 150 years ago! The whites and Native Americans said that there was gold and silver as well as fertile land out west. When these rumors spread about the west, everyone else wanted to go too. They were eagerly waiting for spring to come because they wanted to go to the west to start a new life.
People who led the way west are now called the pioneers. They are also called trailblazers. The pioneers didn’t call themselves pioneers though, they called themselves emigrants.
Pioneers went west because they heard that it was paradise. They also thought the east was too crowded. They wanted the adventure of finding buried treasure: gold and silver. They also wanted free land and the freedom to practice any religion they felt like believing. The pioneers or emigrants also couldn’t go east because the Atlantic Ocean was in the way.Most people got to the west because of exaggerated stories which were about gold, fertile land, and little illness. Hearing about gold and possibly getting rich most pioneers wanted to go to the west.
Many young single men went to Californiasearching for gold. Forty-niners were gold seekers who got to California as fast as they could after they received the news of gold being found in 1849. Gold mining was not easy or exciting. It was incredibly hard work. Because the pioneers didn’t want to do the effortful work, they forced Chinese immigrants to do it. Adding to that, the Chinese immigrants were forced to do chores such as washing clothes and doing dishes. Gold miners also forced the Chinese immigrants to work because however much gold miners tried to find the gold, they were not able to find it. Most of the people who got rich from the gold rush made money from the miners not the gold. These people would sell the miners tools, clothes or food.
These are some of the many reasons why pioneers went west. Exaggerated stories convinced them that the west was the place to be. This was good for our country because it got the pioneers to explore more of North America. For example, when the pioneers first went west, they chose to skip the many acres of land of the Great Plains because it was too plain. As time went on, people began to see that the Great Plains was useful land and they began to build communities there. Thanks to the pioneers we have the United States of America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
By: Jiah Lee