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Full-Text Articles in Women's History

Myths, Museums, Mothers, And The Power Of Letitia Carson, Hailey Brink Jun 2023

Myths, Museums, Mothers, And The Power Of Letitia Carson, Hailey Brink

University Honors Theses

Letitia Carson was a trailblazing Black Oregon pioneer woman whose life offered remarkable and unprecedented departures from the white pioneer status quo. Letitia's story presents numerous points at which she could be heralded for her successes; her pregnant journey across the Overland Trail, giving birth in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, cultivating and maintaining two separate homesteads, challenging and conquering two lawsuits against administrator Greenberry Smith, her midwifery and community involvement, and lastly, becoming the first Black woman to own land in Oregon in 1862. And yet, her story fell to obscurity, only to be revived nearly a century …


"I Just Had To Do Most Everything": Gender, Settlement And American Empire In The Far West, Hannah Alexandra Reynolds Jun 2022

"I Just Had To Do Most Everything": Gender, Settlement And American Empire In The Far West, Hannah Alexandra Reynolds

Dissertations and Theses

The field of settler colonial studies has made huge strides in recent years toward problematizing the establishment of the United States on stolen land and the nation's steady, violent expansion across the continent. Settler colonial framework provides a rich opportunity for historians of the American West to reframe white settlement on the frontier, especially that which was made possible through land grant legislation such as the Homestead Act of 1862. As the families who took up land grant property sought new opportunities for themselves, they also acted as drivers of U.S. territorial acquisition. This process was inherently gendered, in terms …


Women Of The West: Prostitutes And Madams, Emma R. Marek Apr 2018

Women Of The West: Prostitutes And Madams, Emma R. Marek

Young Historians Conference

During the late 1800s, the institution of prostitution flourished unlike ever before as America fulfilled its “Manifest Destiny.” Amidst predominantly male industries, women found prostitution a unique opportunity to survive in the developing and wild western society. The topic of this paper addresses these women, this under celebrated group, and their contribution to the development of the American West. This paper will argue that during the 19th century, prostitutes and madams contributed immensely to the economic, social, and legal developments of the Western Frontier. Brothels became integral for the economic discourse of businessmen. Their dually criminal and civil position …