Examining the experiences of women in 19th century America.
This paper introduces, discusses and compares the hardships faced by pioneer women as they traveled across the American continent in the 19th century. Specifically, it looks at the long and grueling journey, depression, financial ruin, disease and death on the trail.
“Most of the women who traveled west were part of a family – they had to follow their husbands or lose them. Some of them traveled with great anticipation of what was to come, and some of them dreaded leaving the comforts of the East to head toward what they knew could only be hardship and loss on the trip west. One such woman was Lucetta Rogers, who travel to California in 1853 to meet her husband. He had left her in Connecticut, and she traveled by ship to reach him faster after she learned he was sick with typhoid fever.”