Anglo-Women During California Gold Rush Essay

During the 1800’s, lives changed for many people. The Klondike Gold Rush began. In the article Klondike Gold Rush written by the Public Domain, the passage from A Women Who Went to Alaska written by May Kellogg Sullivan, and the video City of Gold made by the National Film Board of Canada and narrated Pierre Berton, the points of view of each show the miners’ lives. Each piece has a point of view, which helps the reader understand the miners’ lives through the word choice, and the tone

With all these travelers from the east and different country made California a “melting pot” of different people and culture. When news that California that had gold began to spread outside of the United State it first hit Mexico and Hawaii lead to the first wave of immigrants with the purpose of mining. Then, news the quickly across the world from South America to Europe and from Australian to Asian, the impact was so big that the text said, “Irish immigration to the United States, already at 100,000 a year in 1847, more than double to 220,000 by 1851” (Gillon, 297). With all these people mining towns would quickly pop up across California, and these towns with every race you could think such as Black, French, Irish, Chinese, Mexican, and etc. The towns were constantly busy with people moving to and from mine and rivers. With a day or a week of work could make you a nice amount of profit, you could entertain yourself for a while before you had to go back to mining with bars, gambling parlors, and whore house. Prostitutes made good money because in text said that, “ One prostitute in California Boasted of making more than $50000in a year.” (Gillon, 297). I could imagine myself being there if I made it there.

In the issue “Was the Colonial Period a “Golden Age” for Women in America?” the core difference of whether or not it was a golden age for women is seen in the variation of roles women had in the colonies compared to later generations and whether or not these differences led to them having more opportunities or just more work. In Gloria Main’s article “Gender, Work, and Wages in Colonial New England” she argues that women’s status in the colonies was elevated by the lack of both females and people in general. She focuses on the economic benefits and increased role diversity women had during the colonial period as what increased the colonial “women’s status and condition” (43). While in Mary Beth Norton’s argues against the belief that women had an elevated status in her article “The Myth of the Golden Age, she’s bases this on the fact that women were still required to do what traditional gender roles required them to do as well as the new responsibilities found in the colonies. Norton focused on the fixed status women seemed to have throughout the colonial time period and while they did take on some different and extra roles, their place in society was still primarily “focus[ed] on the household” (48). Both of these women agree that colonial women had a more

A woman had a busy domestic life. A woman played the role of wife, mother, teacher and manager. She had to please her husband, bear and raise children, educate her children, and manage all daily household activities. In the home, the woman was the jack of all trades. Part of the role of the female was to take raw goods, and turn them into useful items, such as food, candles, and clothing. Women had to clean, butcher and prepare all game brought home to the family. A woman was a household factory. Many items in the home were created by women. All clothing was made by spinning, weaving and stitching. All cloth was washed by hand without the aid of any machines. Candles were made at home by weaving a wick and pouring hot wax into a mold. A woman had to be educated enough to teach her sons and daughters the skills of life. Women spent the majority of their time performing daily tasks, but still were able to have leisure activities such as painting, embroidery, and charity work. Women had very few legal rights. In the majority of colonies, women had no legal control over their lives. It was the consensus among society that

The daily life of a miner was far from perfect. The way the papers and other means of propaganda had portrayed getting rich quick, but it was far from easy. All the equipment that was needed to start out as a miner was for the most part outrageous. The earning wages from gold was” sixteen dollars an ounce” pg.8. Even so, the work was backbreaking. There was swarms of minors trying to get rich quick. To many miners that traveled to get a piece of the precious metal they where resorted to taking land from previous land owner just to get ahead in the Gold Rush. Not to mention that the living conditions where also outrageous. The “rentals of hotels and other business structures, whether of boards or of canvas, reached even dizzier heights than did commodity prices” pg.8. This spaces where set prices at 3,000 dollars a month or 40,000 dollars for a year, there was also other prices around the area of San Francisco. And in some cases miners where resorted to living in a room filled to the brim with other miners. This lead to very poor conditions for any one to live in. But nothing was better then being rich in a few months or

The Susan Lee Johnson article on miners in California helped me to understand the how men in the mining towns behaved in the absence of Anglo-women. It was interesting to see some of similarities between men assuming female gender roles in California Gold Mines with that of the men in the early establishment of Jamestown, Virginia. However, the added factors like spare time and the local women in California added an even more distorted spin to the men's behavior.

One challenge in the California Gold Rush individuals faced were individuals giving many things up at home. For example from the text “The California Gold Rush” it states “...many people, mostly men left their jobs…” (Mcgill 1-2). People would leave their jobs just to go and try to get gold, mostly none of them even got rich. Mostly men again gave up on their families to get rich. Leaving the people they love for fortune of their own well being. There are really bad people to just throw away what

California is the state that well known with the largest population in the United State, and it is the most culturally and racially diverse society.When walking in the street, it can see different kinds of races and hear many different languages. “Melting pot” is a good definition to explain this diverse phenomenon, which describes that the lost of different cultures living together harmoniously in a common society. Actually, numbers of these different cultural immigrants came to the California, the United State since the Gold Rush. These different cultures are melting harmoniously right now, however, they has faced discrimination and racist attacks during the Gold Rush. In this essay, it is going to discuss the development of the Gold Rush, who has been discrimination and how they has been discrimination during that period.

The California Gold Rush was an event that lasted from January 24th, 1848 to 1855. The event was driven mainly by the large quantities of gold reserves that were discovered in the soon to be US state of California. This event caused many Americans to move from the eastern states and middle states to California with the hopes of finding gold. In this paper, I will analyze the economy at the time the gold rush started and attempt to answer the question of why individuals found it necessary or advantageous to move out to California in pursuit of gold. I will also consider personal accounts and editorials written to gain a more personal narrative of the conditions people were experiencing as well as their mindsets in deciding whether to move to California for the gold or not.

The Gold Rush was one of the most influential times in California History. During the four years from 1848-1852, 400,000 new people flooded into the state. People from many countries and social classes moved to California, and many of them settled in San Francisco. All this diversity in one place created a very interesting dynamic. California during the Gold Rush, was a place of colliding ideals. The 49ers came from a very structured kind of life to a place where one was free to make up her own rules.

Stemming from a lack of skilled labourers in B.C, the need for immigration was key in developing the idea of a Canadian “El Dorado”. Thankfully though, the enticement of gold was enough to do so. Dubbed Gold Rush Fever, it “went global in the 19th century. Gold rushes caused the first large scale world migrations.” And due to this immigration, “Nineteenth - century gold rushes shaped and reshaped trans - pacific networks of

     The California Gold Rush of 1849 is one of the most interesting and exiting events of the United States. From the wild stories of men striking it big, to the heart wrenching tales of people losing everything, these are what make it so alluring. There are many aspects of the California Gold Rush; effects on California; individual stories of struggle; and effects on the United States as a young country looking for stability.

With the help of the Industrial Revolution, women made significant strives in changing the traditional economic roles given to females. Before the industrial revolution the only opportunity for a woman to be financially secure was for that woman to marry a financially secure husband. This created women’s dependence on men because if the man died they would have no source of income. The Industrial Revolution provided many women with jobs of their own helping women to become self-dependant. This self-dependence allowed for women to pursue interests not involving men, such as

“To many Californians the mention of January 24, 1948, conveys no special meaning, nor is that date widely commemorated in the state. Yet it had a special significance in the history of California, for on that day James Marshall, a moody carpenter from Missouri, discovered the first gold nuggets that resulted in a stampede known as the California Gold Rush.” The California Gold Rush drew in thousands of white settlers, all seeking a better life and a chance

Assessments of the California Gold Rush often apply to a romantic gloss, suggesting that the colorful “Days of ‘49’ were a brief , exciting interlude in an otherwise orderly narrative. The Gold Rush was romantic, brief, and exciting, but it was much more than that. During the 19th century California seemed like a paradise for both men and women looking to escape the East coast in search of a new life and opportunity. Many men and women took the opportunity to escape from the west coast to start a new life at the booming industry in California. Many of these travelers were successful in their new adventure while others were not, however it was different for women from different ethnic backgrounds who suffered a inhumane fortune due to the imbalanced gender difference present in California. The culture found in California during the gold rush provides different perspective on the treatment of women and how the standards of sexuality were less important in the United States.