According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “Manifest Destiny” is defined as “the 19th century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the United States into all the American continents was both justified and inevitable” (Manifesto). It is easy to see how this thinking influenced the people and events of this era, and it is difficult to find another era (despite the fact that Manifest Destiny is a 19th century event) that displays more similar thinking. In our reading this week, manifest destiny was evident in many of the events that occurred. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First of all, and probably most obviously, 19th-century Americans were influenced by Manifest Destiny thinking in their efforts against Native Americans. The conflicts, in essence, occurred because Native Americans, according to our textbook, occupied “the very same land that white Americans wanted.” Because, as the doctrine of Manifest Destiny enunciated, at least in their minds, Americans felt that the land was rightfully theirs and that Native Americans represented troublesome obstacles to their deserved destiny; Men and women known colloquially as “Long Knives” “believed that the Indians were a nuisance best driven away” (Ripper 173). In fact, 19th century white Americans were willing to do anything to get that land, including signing questionable treaties that gave them “legal right” to their land. Besides being inevitable in the eyes of Americans, they justified it in many ways. Hypocritically, as evidenced by Jackson's thought processes, Americans believed they were doing so for the benefit of Native Americans and that "no one can indulge a friendlier feeling than I," but in reality the thinking was more in line with what Jackson said. in our textbook, “The Cherokee [and all Indian tribes by extension] 'have neither the intelligence, nor the industry, nor the moral habits, nor the desire for improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition” which was actually the thinking behind the Indian Deportation Act. Since expansion across North America was inevitable, to white Americans Native Americans had no right to be there and could be rightfully removed by any means necessary. And finally, although it did not involve land conquests, the thinking behind the doctrine of Manifest Destiny also influenced slavery in the 19th century. In the case of Harriet Jacobs, her owner, James Norcom considered her property and needed to control every aspect of her life. Manifest Destiny states that it was destiny for Americans to conquer the continent, including all the property there, which to them meant slaves. In our textbook it says that Norcom “regarded her as uncooperative ownership, as someone who would have to do whatever she asked.” According to the article “Manifest Destiny and the Pacific” by Dan E. Clark, a historian, noted that Manifest Destiny included a heavenly mandate as if God himself had designated white people as masters of the earth. Thus, it is thought that they were superior to all other races living there, so slaves who disobeyed their masters were by extension also disobeying a heavenly command. In his quest to control all aspects of Jacobs' life, Norcom also took it upon himself to possess her children and use them as bargaining chips to manipulate her. Furthermore, in the case of Solomon Northup, he was kidnapped and sold by slave traders, which promotes the idea that slaves?