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The Manifest Destiny Painting
Member rating: No Rating | Words: 579 | Submitted: Sun Apr 06 2008
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How Useful is the Painting "American Progress" to a Historian Studying Reasons Why People Went West? The "American Progress", painted by John Gast in 1872, is a representation of the Manifest Destiny. The Manifest Destiny was the idea that the United States was destined by God to expand from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. The painting would be very useful to a historian. On the painting an angelic-looking woman with a star on her head and a bible (or a school book) in her hand is seen bringing "light" to West. The side from where she is coming is light, and the West, where she is heading, is dark. This light can be interpreted as Christianity; highlighting the idea that the United States thought that by bringing Christianity to the West they also brought "light" to the Indians, whom they considered savage and barbaric. The Indians and the wild...
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