Difference Between Early American Settlers

Have you ever imagined yourself traveling from Tennessee all the way west to Oregon with only a group of families, a wagon, and a constant shortage of food? Here, in Tennessee, going to states that are in the far west, like Oregon or California, isn 't that difficult. Though the trip takes some time, improved ways of transportation like cars, trains, and planes gets us to any destination in a matter of hours or days. Well back in the early 1800’s, American Settlers had many hardships moving west during the Western Expansion. Without the availability of any modern transportation, their journey was by foot, cattle, or wagon, which would take dreading months of starvation and work. An Oregon pioneer named Martha Williams Reed faced many of these

From traveling with families to sicknesses to food shortages, there is a huge difference between early American Settler’s lives and our modern life. One noticeable difference is how people today don 't have to handle natives or families we don 't know. In the first paragraph of Martha’s interview, she talks about the families she travels with and how they have to travel together. Later on, you see how they ran into the Whitmans and the Indians. Families today don 't have to travel in pacts or come across natives that we’re forced to talk to. Also, families today aren 't in constant need for food or supplies. People today only have to pack necessities, and food or any supplies forgotten can be bought at stores. With stores or no availability to buy supplies, they had to fend for themselves and find supplies from others or make supplies from what they have. Even in the text, Martha states, “We were short of provisions most all the time and went hungry…,” meaning they always never had enough to help the company. Drastic differences between us now and the American Settlers back then show how life has improved over the years and gotten easier as well. Journey on the Western Expansion was long and gruesome. Compared to what society has today, American Settlers had to face many challenges that were often hard to face in the first place. As people of today, we get the means of transportation to save the time of difficult journeys and medicine to heal us from illness, but after seeing Martha’s life on the trail through the interview, her and her family’s life led to a difficult path to just getting to Oregon. Overall, being a pioneer in the 1800’s was an exhausting trip, and it’s nothing at all like our