US HistoryFreePrintable

Manifest Destiny Perspectives

A free us history worksheet ready for your classroom. Open in Kuraplan to grab the print-ready PDF, customize it for your students, or generate a fresh version in seconds.

Download now

Name:Date:

Manifest Destiny Perspectives

Read the four short sources. They present different perspectives on U.S. expansion in the 1840s and 1850s. Use evidence from the sources in your answers. The excerpts are adapted for classroom use; the 1850 law excerpt is paraphrased.

Source A: A claim of destiny

In 1845, journalist John L. O’Sullivan argued that the United States was destined to expand across the continent. He described expansion as a way to spread liberty and progress, and suggested that God had set aside the land for the growing nation. This idea became known as Manifest Destiny. It was used to support actions such as the annexation of Texas and U.S. claims to Oregon.

Source B: A settler’s hopes

Luzena Stanley Wilson later recalled arriving in Sacramento during the 1849 Gold Rush: “We wanted to see the great West, and find a home where we could prosper.” She described a fast-growing town of tents, shops, hotels, and markets. To her, the energy and hard work of newcomers seemed to offer opportunity and a chance to build a new community.

Source C: A Miwok perspective

Miwok communities had lived in California long before the Gold Rush. As thousands of newcomers arrived, mining and settlement damaged rivers, oak woodlands, and village lands. Native people faced disease, violence, and loss of access to places and resources they relied on. For many Miwok families, the gold rush brought dispossession and disruption rather than opportunity.

Source D: Unequal law

California’s 1850 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians included provisions that denied Native people equal treatment under the law. Among other things, it allowed Native children to be taken into another person’s custody under specified conditions, barred Native testimony against white people in some cases, and enabled Native people to be arrested and forced to work. These rules gave legal power to systems of coercion and exploitation.

1.Which statement best describes Manifest Destiny as presented in Source A?

A belief that U.S. expansion was justified and would spread progress or liberty
A law granting all Native people equal rights
A plan to stop settlement in the West
A protest against the Gold Rush

2.Name one reason Wilson gives for why newcomers went west, and one detail showing how Sacramento changed during the Gold Rush.

3.Compare Sources A and B. How does each present westward expansion positively? Give one idea or detail from each source.

4.According to Source C, identify two harms that expansion caused for Miwok communities.

5.What does Source D suggest about whether Native people and white people were treated equally under California law in 1850? Support your answer with one provision described in the source.

6.True or false: Sources B and C describe the Gold Rush from the same point of view. Explain your choice using one detail from each.

7.Match each source with the perspective it mainly presents.

Source A
Source B
Source C
Source D

Settler hopes and opportunity during the Gold Rush
National expansion justified as destiny and progress
Miwok experiences of dispossession and environmental harm
Legal inequality and coercive policies

8.A classmate says, “Westward expansion benefited everyone equally.” Use evidence from at least two sources to explain why this claim is incomplete.

9.Historians consider who created a source, when it was created, and whose experiences it leaves out. Which source offers a direct view of a settler’s hopes, and which offers information about laws? Name one perspective or experience that these sources may not fully represent.