Frederick Jackson Turner and the Closing of the American Frontier

At the end of the 19th century, American historians were still beating to death the idea that slavery, with its importation of alien peoples from Africa, was the central struggle and theme of the American past. Perhaps the reader can imagine the courage it took for a young historian from a backwater university in Wisconsin to stand before a convocation of distinguished academics and tell them they were wrong.

Frederick Jackson Turner delivered a paper containing the seminal ideas of frontier theory before a meeting of the American Historical Society at the University of Wisconsin in 1893. You can read the full text - it isn't very long - at the University of Virginia American Studies site. According to Turner, it was not legal tradition, not place of origin, not religious creed, not race that made Americans inquisitive, practical, inventive, restless, individualistic and indomitably free.

"These are the traits of the frontier," he said, "or traits called out elsewhere because of the existence of the frontier."

Turner's little monograph, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," touched off a controversy which continues even now. To understand why, check out Cornell's Making of America collection. In particular, I am thinking of an article published in the May 1893 edition of Atlantic Monthly titled "European Peasants as Immigrants." Here, one N.S. Shaler tells his readers, "We have suffered grievously from the folly of our predecessors in recklessly admitting an essentially alien folk into this land."

He is talking about Africans, but he soon carries the argument over to peasants of European descent, for, you see, he is concerned about the "problem of immigration" from places other than England and, perhaps, Germany.

If this writer's perceptions seem extreme, consider that they may have been brought about by a very fresh wound. The Superintendent of the Census for 1890 had recently announced that the American frontier had officially closed. That meant that, from now on, there would be fewer opportunities. Land proprietors could wall off resources, creating the condition of enclosure in America. What had happened in Europe, including the development of a cast system and all the attendant evils of enclosure, must have seemed close. Immigrants could no longer be tolerated.

From the absence of frontiers comes the dread of just about everything. It is a kind of death. Frederick Jackson Turner introduced us to the idea that America had become another name for opportunity because of its frontier. The frontier environment demands adaptation and invention as well as physical toughness. In return, it furnishes unlimited opportunity and an avenue of escape from the bondage of the past. 

So who are these “Americans”? Are they the ones who hide behind steel fences, metal detectors, and x-ray machines, who quake every time some guy with a beard and a deep tan shows up at the front door? Can this be “the land of the free and the home of the brave”? Not likely.

The meaning of “American” has changed. The new Americans are globally distributed. They are the ones who risk their lives or their fortunes, or both, on an idea: That the world needs an exit, and the only way out is up.