Manifest Destiny- responding to John Gatta's, "Making Nature Sacred"

Ashley Smith
Manifest Destiny

"Particularly in the earliest stages of New England colonization, settlers were more eager to possess than to be possessed by the land. Sorely pressed to survive, they showed considerably more interest in mastering than in marveling over their new physical environment. Frost said it best: 'The land was ours before we were the land's'"(Gatta 17).

According to "dictionary.com," manifest destiny is, “the belief or doctrine, held chiefly in the middle and latter part of the 19th century, that is was the destiny of the U.S. to expand its territory over the whole of North America and to extend and enhance its political, social, and economic influence.” It seems to me that the Puritans also has a manifest destiny of their own- they desired to come into America and make a life of their own in a new and unfamiliar place. They wanted to pursue their dreams and happiness upon American soil. I feel as if Gatta tied the quote from Frost into his passage because it was almost like the Puritans came quickly and with much power, and before long they took over areas of the New England colonies. The Puritans wanted to conquer and take over the land, rather than have the land take over and rule their lives.