The End of the Myth summary

While there were some, like Alexander Hamilton, who had doubts about continued expansion, few would, or could, stop the progression. Even before the 1763 proclamation was discarded, farmers and settlers were crossing boundaries, claiming land – and then seeking protection.

So the United States continued to expand its frontiers – first to the Mississippi River, and then well beyond it with the purchase of Louisiana from the French in 1803. Each time, questions arose about the treatment of the Native peoples who lived on the land the United States was rapidly gobbling up. 

What comes to mind when you hear the words “safety valve”? In the early 1800s, the steam engine was still being perfected. The safety valve was an exciting new development designed to release built-up steam in an engine. If used properly, the safety valve could turn steam-powered boats into safe transportation rather than the exploding death traps they were commonly known to be.

Suddenly, the term caught on with the press. “Safety valve” became a go-to metaphor for many writers and journalists. Every policy developed to alleviate tension of any sort in the United States – whether among different ethnic and cultural groups or people of different socioeconomic classes – was referred to as a “safety valve.” Expansion was a safety valve. Slavery was a safety valve. Even the rape of female slaves by slave owners was explained as a safety valve to keep white southern women safe. And then there was the most momentous safety valve of all: war.

The mythology around the American frontier is due in large part to a man named Frederick Jackson Turner. He came up with what is known as the Frontier Thesis in the closing years of the nineteenth century.

Up until then, the word “frontier” had mostly been used to describe a country’s border or the frontlines of a military campaign. Turner brought a new, more abstract meaning to the word, right around the time when mainland America’s national borders were finally settling permanently.

America’s attempts at progressive social programs have generally been short-lived. After the American Civil War came the Reconstruction effort. At its center was the Freedmen’s Bureau, which aimed to support freed slaves and help rebuild the war-torn South. To W. E. B. Du Bois, the Freedmen’s Bureau was the “most extraordinary and far-reaching institution of social uplift that America has ever attempted.” But many southerners, including politicians, balked at the idea of treating African Americans as equal citizens. The Bureau closed in 1872 with little fanfare after just seven difficult years.

Likewise, various Homestead Acts designed to distribute land fairly to willing farmers didn’t last. Critics of these programs called them prime examples of governmental overreach. But then came the Great Depression.

Roosevelt’s social programs did help the nation recover and grow stronger. But there were still plenty of Jacksonian Americans and politicians who despised the idea of all this big-government “socialism.”

As it turned out, following World War Two, America’s economy rebounded to become better than ever. This economic upswing, and Roosevelt’s death, meant that many of the New Deal programs were shuttered. The frontier focus this time would be on reaching new economic heights.

The border between the United States and Mexico has always been a place of horrific violence. In 1846, during the Mexican-American War, entire villages were decimated by American soldiers, who committed horrific war crimes, sparing neither men nor women nor children.

Horrors along the border, however, were not limited to wartime. For a while, there was little in the way of walls, fences, or law enforcement of any kind in the area. It was only after World War One that significant security measures began to be put in place along the border. These measures did little, however, to keep migrants out of the United States – or to keep them safe from US vigilantes. 

During Reagan’s time in office, border agents continued to kill and injure migrants. In San Diego, vigilante gangs donned masks, cruised in their cars, and shot Mexicans on sight. Between 1982 and 1990, there were at least 24 protests demanding that the US State Department do something about these murders, but little changed.

In the 1990s, a new president, Democrat Bill Clinton, pushed forward the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), designed in part to improve relations between Mexico and the United States. But it only increased desperation south of the border. 

For hundreds of years, expansion was key to American prosperity. James Madison believed that abundant space would keep the diverse population of the United States from civil conflict. And Turner’s Frontier Theory claimed the country’s continued expansion would guarantee that Americans left their violent or racist impulses behind.

For years now, expansion of any kind has been relatively stagnant. The myth that America’s frontier could grow perpetually and serve as an inspirational horizon has died. Previous generations avoided confronting some of their baser impulses through attempts at ideological expansion and the distractions of external wars. The result? Violence and racism have pooled at America’s southern border and been left to fester.