Slavery in Oregon and California
Oregon was less hospitable to blacks than many of them had hoped. The territorial legislature passed laws prohibiting admission to black settlers, even though exceptions were made on individual petition.…
Emigrants and Indians
The emigrants' fear of the Indians was equaled only by their ignorance of the Indians' ways. They seldom knew, for example. that it was common custom among many tribes to…
Women’s Recording of Gravesites
There is a kind of murderous precision in the women's recounting of mishap. Surely, the accounts must be viewed as a reflection of the continuing anxieties they felt. But the…
Missourians
Harriet Ward and Harriet Clarke were sharply aware of emigrants of lower social standing on the road. Very rowdy emigrants were described as being from Missouri, and the epithet "Missourians" covered…
Bloomers
It is in these travelers' diaries that one reads of women wearing "bloomers" as a gesture of participation in the fashion of the day—a considerable contrast to Rebecca Ketcham, who…
Women’s Need for Privacy on the Trail
In some measure, women were distressed at losing the daily exchanges, the comfonable conversation. and the sharing of chores with female kin and frtends. But the need of women for…
Emigrant Meals
The usual fare for breakfast on the trail was bread or pancakes, fried meat, beans, and tea or coffee. Pancakes were made with flour, water, and baking soda, and cooked in a…
Women’s Influence on the Decision to Emigrate
Faragher writes of his sample of women's diaries: "Not one wife initiated the idea [of migrating]; It was always the husband. Less than a quarter of the women writers recorded agreeing with…
Anti-Mythic Journey for Women
It has been suggested by historian Howard Lamar and psychiatrist Daniel Levinson that the overland passage played a vital role in the life cycle of men, corresponding to "breaking away," improving, or…
Schooled In
On the 11-ail, Agnes spent the greater part of her days with her sister On the trail, Agnes spent the greater part of her days with her sister Elizabeth, even though…
Emigrant Characteristics
Most of the emigrants shared certain characteristics as a group: they were men and women who had already made one or more moves before in a restless search for better lands. They…
Preemption
What a farm family wanted most was a government policy that would permit a farmer to "squat" on a piece of land. that is, to build a house and clear the trees,…
Spur to Emigration on the 1840s
In 1831, a Massachusetts schoolteacher incorporated the "American Society for Encouraging the Settlement of the Oregon Territory." His ambition was to "repeat with appropriate variations the history of the Puritan colony of Massachusetts…
Frontier Theory for Women
Almost twenty years ago the late historian David Potter pointed out that one of the most influential interpretations of the American experience was based upon a fallacy. He was referring to Frederick…
Women’s Trail Diaries
"Another important distinction to be made in Overland Trail narrative – almost as significant as that between diary and memoir – is that between narratives written by men and those…