American history research question

Question

Ah, research - that great excuse for not actually doing any writing...

The American west in the mid to late nineteenth century. Pioneer wagon trains heading out to claim land and build up new communities. Apart from the well-known example of the Mormons, were there any other distrusted religious factions who went West to escape persecution?

Ta.
Bert

Usenet · Accepted Answer

Since posting the question, I've come across this site: http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/amana/utopia.htm which seems to be pretty relevant. But any other thoughts would be welcome.

Bert

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Ah, research - that great excuse for not actually doing any writing... The American west in the mid to late ... from the well-known example of the Mormons, were there any other distrusted religious factions who went West to escape persecution?[/nq]
The Scientologists.

"I read the script and I get it. If I don't get it, I can't do it." - Morgan Freeman

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]The Scientologists.[/nq]
Er... mid to late nineteenth century?
Bert

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[nq:2]The Scientologists.[/nq]
[nq:1]Er... mid to late nineteenth century?[/nq]
Er... joke?

"I read the script and I get it. If I don't get it, I can't do it." - Morgan Freeman

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Er... joke?[/nq]
I woundered, but the Scientologists don't have quite the same resonance for me as they seem to for most here, and so I wasn't sure. Sorry.

Bert

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[nq:1]I woundered...[/nq]
Woundered? That must be when you're so uncertain, it hurts.

Bert

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[nq:1]Ah, research - that great excuse for not actually doing any writing... The American west in the mid to late ... from the well-known example of the Mormons, were there any other distrusted religious factions who went West to escape persecution?[/nq]
I can't think of any, but it's an intriguing thought, and my bet would be that there are dozens or maybe even hundreds of them.

Keep in mind, this entire continent was settled by religious fanatics who left England, Germany, Denmark and a host of other countries, often because the religious practices there weren't strict enough.

The trail west is pretty much littered with the remains of cultish religious adherents, many of whose cults died out when their last badly-prepared followers ran headlong into tornados, snow, dust storms, grizzly bears and indigenous peoples looking to broaden their gene-base by acquiring a few blondes.
The Mormons ended up establishing a foothold and hanging on til the present day, but the odds weren't very much in their favor in the early days. I'd bet there are dozens of other little-known sects who followed their David Koresh's or Jim Jones into the shadows of American history.

Alan Brooks

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name of the father,
the son and the
dancing mayfly princess.
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One of the interesting things about that time in history is the Chinese railroad-worker thing - this was a movement, they were there in droves, but you never see Chinese people in Westerns. Why not?

Another thing - the Orphan train - there's books about it, I've heard the main writer about it speak. They sent orphans out West. Go West, young boys and girls. There's lots of other stuff besides religiious you can mine, if you want to write a Western. Which frankly, is not a genre I'd pay 10 bucks to see - it's just not my cuppa frappachino.

Religion then/ there, I don't know about.

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[nq:2]Ah, research - that great excuse for not actually doing ... other distrusted religious factions who went West to escape persecution?[/nq]
[nq:1]I can't think of any, but it's an intriguing thought, and my bet would be that there are dozens or maybe even hundreds of them.[/nq]
The largest cult was the Method actors; spurned by polite society in New York, they landed in southern California with great feeling.

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[nq:1]Since posting the question, I've come across this site:http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/amana/utopia.htmwhich seems to be pretty relevant. But any other thoughts would be welcome. Bert[/nq]
Well, there were the Amish and the Mennonites, but I'm not sure to what extent they were particularly discriminated against.

Then again, there's also the all-time favorites the Jews.

Now, an interesting aspect of Jewish migration from Europe the the Americas is the extent to which it was driven by pre-existing Jewish populations that were already established and were were interested in "helping" subsequent waves of Jewish immigration by, well moving them further down the line.
What had happened was that you had an initial wave of Jewish immigrants that came out of Germany early in the nineteenth century that were reasonably well-off. They were merchants, traders, craftsmen, that came out of Germany and settled in England and mostly in the Eastern parts of the United States.
Then, following major persecutions in eastern Europe and Russia you had a major influx of poor Jews coming, first, into England - and the already established Jewish community wasn't really crazy about this huge population of mostly poor Russian and Polish Jews.

So they wanted them help. And the way they helped them was to raise money to help them emigrate to the United States.

So they ended up in New York where the German Jews there were also waiting to help them to move further out go west, young Jew.

So you ended up, in turn, with communities of Jews in St. Louis (which is where my wife's family came from) and ultimately a large population of Jews in San Francisco, which was about as far as they could be moved without getting their feet wet (and also large Jewish population centers in South America).
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