Manifest Destiny and Its Critics.pdf - Mr. Mermelstein's classes

The Secondary Sources for the LessonSecondary Source 2The Secondary SourcesInformation on the source: The passage in the box below is an excerpt from Manifest Destiny, byDavid S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2003), p. 24.From another perspective, evolvingconcepts of racial uniqueness clearlyfigured into the rhetoric and meaning ofManifest Destiny. Reginald Horsman hasshown that assigning hierarchies accordingto racial identity existed as early as theeighteenth century. By the mid-1800s, bothscience and philosophy categorized thedifferent races almost as different species.Americans were adhering to historicaltrends when they justified expansion withclaims of Anglo-Saxon racial superiority.Believing that indigenous people (Indiansor blacks) or inhabitants of neighboringcountries (Mexicans) were fated by thenatural order for subjugation, Americanswithout guilt could justify perpetuatingslavery, acquiring land for agriculturalincrease, and securing markets forcommercial growth. Manifest Destinycould thus validate the interests of empirewithout acknowledging the corruptionof imperialism.Manifest Destiny and Its Critics | The Historian’s Apprentice 31