Letters of Western Expansion

Read this article on letterwriting  (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. on the website of the National Postal Museum, a branch of the Smithsonian Institute.

On your blog, write a summary paragraph, linking to the article.  Demonstrate your ability to paraphrase, as well as include a pithy quote. 

Bring your working laptop to class.

Depiction of Western Expansion

In the Letters of Westward Expansion, the article follows great parts of western expansion. This included people people moving for religious duties, search for a better and prosperous life. The letters connected each of there lives with the homes they left behind. Many were attracted to western expansion if they were going through difficulties east. A quaker family moved out west after bad investments, lack of business, and a death in the family. Their letters provided a lifelong correspondence of there journey. In the letters, it discusses there "hardships and unexpected pleasures of living in such an undeveloped place". These letters were difficult to write as a high death rate added, as people didn't want to write about a loss in there lives, "letters had the power both to warm the heart with good news and to break it with bad".  In the east, farms were expanding  in factories with increased employment and upgrade in technology. Letters home would take several months to be delivered, as they often took winding routes back home. At the midligning of the 19th century, railroads made this effort ever more possible.