By the early 1800s, the fur trading industry had built an infrastructure of trading posts along the upper Missouri River. Protected by the U. S. military, the posts were centers of commerce between and among fur traders, Euro-American immigrants, Indians and military personnel (Wishart 215).
This map shows trading posts in the northwestern territories:
 |
| Encylopedia of American History - p. 157 |
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803, which gave the United States control of the entire Mississippi Valley, inspired the vision of a commercial route across the rivers of the North American continent, onto the Pacific Ocean and then to India and China (Solomon 279).
The lure of a route to the Orient captured the imagination of many entrepreneurs and politicians, not least the influential trio of Thomas Hart Benton, John C. Frémont and Jessie Benton Frémont.
Thomas Hart Benton (the great-great-uncle of his namesake, the Kansas City artist) was a St. Louis newspaper editor, politician and land speculator. Benton, the "Great Expansionist" saw, not only a lucrative trade route across the continent, but also the power of the country residing in the state of Missouri as the "economic, political, and demographic" center (Morton 298). Later the term "Manifest Destiny" would be applied to this Euro-American right to spread to the Pacific Ocean, bringing with them democracy and Christianity (Nash IV: 217).
Benton found his agent of expansion in John C. Frémont (Rutten). Married to Benton's daughter, Jessie, John Frémont became known as "The Pathfinder." He, and his partner Kit Carson, made a number of western surveying treks, the first being along the Oregon Trail in 1842. Later he would search for a railroad route through the Rocky Mountains (Nash IV: 153).
Jessie Benton Frémont, sharing her father's dream of the country stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, published eloquent accounts of John's expeditions and later of her own travels. One of these was A Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon and California, published in 1843. These widely read accounts excited people's imagination for the move west (Nash IV: 152).
Euro-Americans responded to the excitement and possibilities and headed to Oregon, using many of the age-old Native American routes. By 1846 the influx of people made possible a treaty with Great Britain which defined the boundaries of Oregon Country and brought it into the U. S. domain (Nash IV: 268).
By the mid-1850's, some of the overlanders began cutting south off the Oregon Trail headed to California. With the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846, led by John Frémont, bringing California under U. S. control, plus the discovery of gold in 1848 causing the nation's largest westward migration, California became a state in 1850 (Nash IV: 64-65).
Using John Frémont's map and Jessie's expedition report, the Mormon's began their journey in 1846, first following the Oregon trail, and then cutting off to Salt Lake City on the Mormon trail (Mormon Pioneer).
The people were not traveling blindly. Just as today, there were travel guides. In the 1850's J. H. Colton books gave sectional, state and territory specific information including steamboat and railroad routes. Let's take a look at a few pages:
 |
| Colton p. 55-56 |
 |
| Colton p. 171 |
 |
| Colton p. 239 |
The Native Americans were the losers in this migration. While Indian attacks on the wagon trains were largely mythical, the diseases brought by the immigrants were very real. Measles, diphtheria, smallpox and cholera broke out in major epidemics (Hoxie 162-165). A severe smallpox epidemic almost wipes out the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara nations along the Missouri River (Nash IV: 377).
Slavery permeated every discussion and debate about western movement. Earlier attempts to settle the question, both the Missouri Compromise of 1821 and the 1850 Compromise were essentially reversed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. With Stephen Douglas the chief advocate, this bill, which attempted to salve the conflict between the North and South (and set a path for a transcontinental railroad) actually brought about guerrilla war. While other states had been admitted to the Union as either "free" states or "slave" states, slavery policy in Kansas and Nebraska was to be decided by votes of the residents. Congress could not come to a decision and threw it over to Popular Sovereignty (Nash V: 197).
By the spring of 1856, just months before the Arabia was snagged, conflicts between pro-slavery Bushwackers and anti-slavery Jayhawkers, had begun. Lawrence was attacked in May by Bushwackers and then shortly thereafter John Brown retaliated at Pottawatomie Creek. The violence continued with the Osawatomie Battle in August. So the Arabia was steaming through a very unsettled landscape (Nash V: 31-32).
The controversy surrounding the Kansas-Nebraska Act also dismantled the political parties. Our friend John Frémont was named the 1856 candidate for the Republican Party's first participation in the presidential election (Nash IV: 152).
Summary
So, by 1856, the population of the west included Native Americans, immigrants, fur traders, explorers, and military personnel, all receptive to the trade items aboard the steamboat Arabia. We will find, as we explore the Arabia's cargo, that many of these people wanted nice things and were willing and able to pay for them (Bordewich).
