Learn how the opening of the Northwest Territory led to mass migrations from America and Europe
Americans and Europeans by the thousands sought new opportunities on the frontier.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Questions and answers about the Meiji Restoration.
-
Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz; Thumbnail © Jorisvo/Dreamstime.comLearn about the Saxon leader Widukind.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Minister, speaker, activist.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Learn about the different physical landscapes that make up the American Midwest.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.The B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay took off from the Mariana Islands on August 6, 1945, bound for Hiroshima, Japan, where, by dropping an atomic bomb, it heralded a new and terrible concept of warfare. From The Second World War: Allied Victory (1963), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Learn how European American settlers drove Native Americans and bison from the Midwest and transformed the land.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Settlement of America's western lands began with the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
Transcript
[Music in]
NARRATOR: The opening of this Northwest Territory touched off one of the greatest mass migrations of people in history. These were people who knew what they wanted . . . political freedom . . . opportunity to live as they pleased and opportunity to better their fortunes in years to come . . . even as they first scouted the land, already saw a vast expanse of prosperous farms criss-crossed by good roads leading to fast-expanding cities.
With the determination to turn this into a land of plenty, they came by the thousands . . . leaving crowded conditions and worn-out land in New England, Pennsylvania, and the Southern States. They came from Europe . . . people who refused to be farm laborers or wage workers under a semi-feudal system.
They passed through towns like Pittsburgh on the edge of a frontier . . . and loaded onto flatboats that would take them down river to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois territory.
Someone said that all America seemed to be breaking up . . . moving westward in search of new land . . . new opportunity.
[Music out]
NARRATOR: The opening of this Northwest Territory touched off one of the greatest mass migrations of people in history. These were people who knew what they wanted . . . political freedom . . . opportunity to live as they pleased and opportunity to better their fortunes in years to come . . . even as they first scouted the land, already saw a vast expanse of prosperous farms criss-crossed by good roads leading to fast-expanding cities.
With the determination to turn this into a land of plenty, they came by the thousands . . . leaving crowded conditions and worn-out land in New England, Pennsylvania, and the Southern States. They came from Europe . . . people who refused to be farm laborers or wage workers under a semi-feudal system.
They passed through towns like Pittsburgh on the edge of a frontier . . . and loaded onto flatboats that would take them down river to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois territory.
Someone said that all America seemed to be breaking up . . . moving westward in search of new land . . . new opportunity.
[Music out]