7. American Exceptionalism & Manifest Destiny

America is not exactly a Christian country, America is more precisely a Protestant Country” – Richard Rodriguez, Spiritual Roots

The settlers from England brought along to the New World, their religions and their ethics. Most of these settlers came from Protestant sects such as Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians, commonly referred collectively to as “Puritans” (Noll, 2002).

Our faith in individualism, our sense of optimism, the Easter promise, the notion that you can cast off your old self and become someone new, all these beliefs derive from our Puritan forefathers.’  – Richard Rodriguez, Spiritual Roots

Depiction of a typical day at work shows the extensiveness of the logging industry

Although the Natives have also been practicing agriculture and logging, the settlers’ attitudes and work ethic contrasted against the natives. The natives were content with subsistence, so they only grew as much as they needed. However, the early settlers, under the influence of the protestant ethic, were not content with mere subsistence, maximized production and deforestation at a rate that was unprecedented by the Natives (Heine, 2016).

The settlers saw the endless forests not simply as resources available, but also the westward exploration and expansion of the natural environment as a duty (Calderon, 2014). Starting from Colonial Virginia (the first successful English settler colony of the new world) expanding toward the west coast into areas such as Texas, Oregon and California.

These expansions were “built through the contingencies of history – the new interpretation of the Christian Bible, with emerging modernity and the Protestant Ethic” served as precursors and foundations  for what would become termed the “Manifest Destiny” (McCoy, 2014).

Manifest Destiny is the ideology that ‘European immigrants were “destined” to lands in the USA’ which was predicated upon American Exceptionalism – the belief that the United States were specially chosen for the task of ‘civilizing’ the rest of the world (Calderon, 2014). Hence, it was justifiable, and even morally obligated to take over the environment in the course of the westward expansion. For example, the forests were normally considered Common Pool resources; back in England, these commons belonged to the Monarch. However, in the New World, the settlers renounced all forms of monarchy, taking up Protestantism. The individualizing qualities of the Protestant ethic, advocating that “every man is equal”; which was amalgamated with American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny resulted in the belief that the commons pool such as wildlife and forests were seen as individual rights that every individual should have accesses to (Calderon, 2014).

Not only was it a “universal right”, but a moral obligation to cut down the forests for furniture, building materials and ship-building industry. It was also a method to clear the forests for agricultural crop land, while simultaneously clearing the woods from predators. The large mammals were caught for their fur to sell in the fur trade. Hence achieving higher amounts of production. This increased the strain on the commons because everyone saw themselves as having rights to access the commons and saw little need to restrain themselves when they saw their neighbours helping themselves to the common pool of forest land and game animals.

Depiction of an ideal Expansion – seeking brighter horizons

No regulation was implemented on them because it believed to be the antithesis to their individual rights, hence 67% of forests (approximately 90% of primary forests)  were cleared from the North America by 1926. Populations such as whitetail deer, buffalo dropped to endangered levels as a result of unrestricted hunting and habitat modification caused by clearing.

 

 

Railroad bridges and trestles (top) were constructed of pilings and large timbers. Railroads consumed vast quantities of wood, as these stacked cross ties

 

 

 

References:

Calderon, D. 2014. “Speaking Back to Manifest Destinies: A Land Education-based Approach to Critical Curriculum Inquiry.” Environmental Educational Research 20 (1): 24–36.

Heine, S. J. (2016). Cultural psychology. New York: W.W. Norton.

McCoy, K. (2014). Manifesting Destiny: a land education analysis of settler colonialism in Jamestown, Virginia, USA. Environmental Education Research, 20(1), 82-97. doi:10.1080/13504622.2013.865116

Noll, M. A. (2002). The Old Religion in a New World: The History of North American Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Weber, M., Giddens, A., & Parsons, T. (1992). The Protestant ethic ; Spirit of capitalism. London: Routledge.

Richard Rodriguez, Spiritual Roots, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour (PBS television broadcast, Dec. 27, 1994) (transcript #5128 at 16).

U.S. History Onlline Textbook. (n.d.). Manifest Destiny. Retrieved from http://www.ushistory.org/us/29.asp