The Story of Emigration

Littered throughout the packet you'll find evidence of push and pull factors but, push factors definitely made the biggest impact on the story of emigration on the Oregon Trail to the Oregon Territory, drawing Americans away from their homes and to hopes of better lives. While I do agree that pull factors helped move people on their way, push factors were a bigger impact in my opinion. The widespread rumours of healthful land in the Oregon Territory intrigued everyone and the emigration there was inevitable in my opinion. Oregon seemed like a wonderful place full of fertile land, political strength and healthy people, some things lacking in other parts of America.

The Panic of 1837 depressed the economy for several years according to the source entitled Cartoon from 1838. In the picture a tradesman sits, seeming to think over his current situation and the position his family is currently forced to live in. This cartoon painted a pretty accurate picture of the devastation sweeping the nation and making people feel helpless. People out of work, and out of luck, saw Oregon as a way out their deep misery and pain, out of the depression, away from their bad luck. Most of the families in or near this state had nothing left to fight for at home. The fact that the Panic of 1837 put so many people out of jobs and out of homes gives me key evidence that the cartoon represents a push factor, influencing people to leave their homes and start fresh in Oregon.

James Nesmith, emigrant to Oregon in 1843 spoke of how Americans were basically taking chances and going all out to move to Oregon because of the pressure they were under. Many Americans were leaving their homes and even families and belongings behind for a better life in Oregon. This source shows me the attitude of those who were leaving and the level of their willingness to move and start fresh. I believe this is a push factor with a pull factors influence because people were so caught up in the dream of going to Oregon that they did whatever they could to escape their old lives, no matter the level of risks. Many men left their families to the threat of massacres and starvation, burnt their boats and all for what, all for the Oregon Territory.

In the source, Internal Factors, the growing financial deficit, political strain, and social problems as well as health issues caused many Americans to want to get up and leave their lives behind to go to the Oregon Territory, a place seeming to come right from one of their dreams. This is a push factor because many people were feeling like going to Oregon was their only choice due to the financial hardships they were enduring and health issues they were left with. Economic hardships caused by the Panic of 1837, addressed in, Cartoon from 1838, caused men feeling helpless to just want to run away. The depression caused foreclosed mortgages and unemployment issues all over America. Health problems in the Midwest