Jackson Turner's The Significance of the Frontier in American History

With each evolutionary stage came the increase of true American character and the decrease of European influence. Frederick Jackson Turner, in his remarkable "The Significance of the Frontier in American History", embraces that point and further analyzes it. Turner argues that it was the countless evolutions of the Frontier, from undeveloped lands to thriving towns and cities, and not European practices or influences that shaped American individualism, nationalism, independence, and democracy. In his thesis, Turner argues that the frontier promoted American economic and political independence. Even after the American Revolution, the United States still received much of its final goods from European nations.

However, in order to promote economic growth and manufacture in the United States, the government had imposed a set of tariffs and other economic sanctions on foreign goods. Despite this, Turner argues that it was the West that largely aided American self-sufficiency. The growing west, in the undeveloped state that it was in, needed many materials to advance its status. It became self-sufficient, producing much of its own goods and receiving much from the Eastern United States as well. In its development, the Frontier had succeeded in Americanizing the economy and freeing it from European grasp. Turner also explains that the Frontier had conferred upon the United States a strong sense of nationalism. The openness of the United States with regard to immigration had led to an influx of foreigners, turning the country into somewhat of a melting pot. However, Turner explains that the frontier has embraced the diversity, creating what he deemed a "composite nationality", or a large and diverse family. Turner also explains that the evolution of the frontier gradually expunged provincial identities, often merging or eliminating regional groups, such as the Southern aristocrat and Northern Yankee, drastically changing the social hierarchies of the country. The West had begun to promote the blight of sectionalism and inject bursts of nationalism in the country. It had also done another invaluable thing though.

The West had aided in the downfall of slavery, viewing it as a sectional trait of the South that must be eliminated. The men of the frontier believed that the nation could not be half-free and half-slave. They brought this qualm with them to Washington, helping to lead to the abolition of slavery after the Civil War. The Frontier, through its breakdown of sectionalism had invigorated the United States' sense of nationalism. Turner rationalizes that the Frontier also promoted individualism and thus Americanized Americans. The federal government, by providing cheap or free lands, had constructed a "safety valve" which protected America from uprisings of the poverty-stricken or discontented. The frontier had taken these men and by providing them with free, but often uncharted land, had transformed them into adventurers. As the first virtually free Americans, frontiersmen had an unpolished roughness to them. They defined the term "outdoorsmen"; strong, practical, rational and investigative. Most importantly, Turner felt that the dominant individualism frontiersmen displayed led to the development of individualist democracy. With the absence of eastern institutions, frontiersmen were forced to rely on their own intuition and vigor. Frontiersmen were heartland Americans, people who overturned eastern deference to authority and depended on their own perceptiveness and energy to develop the West. Most importantly, Turner suggests that the frontier disregarded eastern homage to authority and promoted a distinctly American democracy. Turner felt that American democracy and institutions were not simply a result of European influence, nor were they a result of agreements such as the Mayflower Compact or the Massachusetts Bay Charter.

American democracy was born in the forests of the West, developing even further with each new evolutionary stage of the frontier. Turner explains that American democracy was shaped by various events and occurrences in frontier society or frontier-like settings and resulted in a government who's people were often disinclined to obey. One such example is Bacon's rebellion, which was a struggle for power between eastern, European-like and Western interests. The slaves were dissatisfied with their status and revolted. This exemplifies Turner's feelings that frontiersmen did not have the same deference to authority as the easterners had, and with their own intuition and strength, took different, more active measures to achieve their desires. The frontier bred a democracy born of free-land, characterized by individualism and a lack of tolerance of central authority. Despite the explications and claims made by Turner, the West was not as influential on American politics and character as stated in "The Significance of the Frontier in American History". Earl Pomeroy, in his "Toward a Reorientation of Western History: Continuity and Environment", reinforces the common beliefs held by the historians of Turner's time period. Most importantly, Pomeroy explains that although the frontier was America's West, America was Europe's west. The United States remained the Western appendage of Europe, reinforcing European practices and beliefs in the Western Hemisphere. Pomeroy furthers his argument by stating that the development of the West was not a set of original evolutions, but was rather a prime example of conformity.

The West mimicked the East in all parts of society. It formed similar institutions, called for the much of the same federal governmental policies, and even had similar building structures; the West was hardly an innovation, if anything, it was a conformity. Turner also mentions that the West evolved gradually, yet much of the West was developed overnight, such as the various mining and oil towns scattered around the region. With regard to Turner's claim that the frontier was self-sufficient, Pomeroy explains that the West was dependent on the East. He explains that goods were purchased from eastern companies and from eastern merchants. The majority of machinery and supplies on the frontier was of eastern descent. The essence of Pomeroy's paper is that to comprehend Americanism and the development of this nation, we must look not at the West, but at the East, for it is the colonies that were the major influences of this nation. The statement made by the Superintendent of the Census for 1890 closed the first period of American history. Democracy, economic and political independence, nationalism and individualism had all been vividly modified by the evolution of the frontier.