Young children had a very high mortality (death rate). Women generally had many more children than is typical today. At the same time, the number of children that families had in the Northeast was slowly decreasing. One reason was that women were getting slightly older before they married. Women themselves often died giving birth. They were usually assisted by midwives and surrounded by women while the men anxiously waited outside. There were no antibiotics, X-rays or other ways of preventing complications or fighting infection. Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Americans Not all Americans became married couples. Gay and lesbian Americans faced special challenges in this period. Sexual activity was viewed as sinful and was generally forbidden except between married couples. People saw same-sex preferences as a sign of criminality or mental instability. States even passed laws turning same-sex practices into criminal acts. In colonial times, the punishment was death, although this seems never to have been enforced. Pennsylvania repealed its death sentence for same-sex behavior in 1786. Its example was quickly followed by all the other states except North and South Carolina. There was no literature or public support for those who had same sex preferences so gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans had to keep their true feelings hidden. There were still places where gay men could secretly express themselves, such as in all-male colleges, at sea, in the army, or in remote rural and frontier areas. Some historians, for example, think that Baron von Steuben, the Prussian who helped the Continental Army at Valley Forge, may have 232 been gay. With the growth of cities, a gay subculture appeared. The poet Walt Whitman was drawn to young men in the parks and dance halls of New York City. He even enjoyed just observing handsome young men in crowds, as reflected in his poem “Cross Brooklyn Ferry.” But even Whitman sometimes denied his same-sex preferences in public. Poet Walt Whitman Chapter 8    Ordinary Lives: Society in the Early Republic © FCE • Unlawful to photocopy without permission learn more about this in Chapter 11.) Or they worked as servants in middle-class homes. Even women who had to work were influenced by middle-class ideals. Many of them read the new ladies’ magazines, pointing the way to a middleclass life style. The nuclear family of mother, father and their children was but one form of family in early nineteenth-century America. Farm hands, apprentices, and others often found a place at the dinner table and were even treated as family members. © FCE • Unlawful to photocopy without permission In the nineteenth century, many Americans did not think that women had sexual feelings at all. Sexual relations were a duty that a wife owed to her husband. Same-sex preferences were therefore not well understood. Women with strong romantic feelings towards other women might even be thought to be unwell. Unmarried women did, however, sometimes live together for many years in what were called “Boston marriages.” One historian has traced such a relationship between Charity Bryant (1777–1851) and Sylvia Drake (1784–1868). The two women met when they were in their twenties in 1806. Soon afterwards they built a house in Webridge, Vermont, where they lived for the next thirty years. Bryant’s nephew was William Cullen Bryant, a famous writer, who visited them in 1843 and wrote: “If I were permitted to draw the veil of private life, I would briefly give you the . . . story of two maiden ladies who dwell in this valley. I would tell you how, in their youthful days, they took each other as companions for life, and how this union, no less sacred to them than the tie of marriage, has subsisted (lasted), in uninterrupted harmony, for more than forty years.” Most same-sex relationships were hidden, and it is often difficult to know the true feelings of those who lived at a time when people were not as open about them as today. The reformer Susan B. Anthony never married and had close female friendships, but it is unclear whether any of these were actually sexual relationships. Jane Addams, who lived later in the century, was the first modern social worker and lived with her friend Ellen Starr in a same-sex relationship. Some women and men, such as Charley Parkhurst (see Chapter 13), chose to spend their lives as a different gender than the one with which they were born. But once again their actions are largely hidden from historians because they lived in an atmosphere of fear and distrust. Women who dressed as men to fight in the American Revolution or the Civil War may have been simply patriotic or they may have also been lesbian or bisexual— but the truth cannot be known. Gender confirmation medical operations were not possible at the time because medical knowledge was too limited. Indians Indian tribes were not included in the U.S. Census, but there may have been as many as half a million Indians still living on U.S. territories in 1810. Only a few hundred of each tribe remained in New England or the Middle Atlantic states. Indian tribes began moving out of parts of the Northwest Territory after the defeat at Fallen Timbers and the Treaty of Greenville, but many still remained. The largest number of Indians were found in the Southeast, where the “Five Civilized Tribes”—the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole—lived. Some of these tribes had created “civilized” communities with the characteristics of white settlements: a written language, constitution, organized government, houses, furniture and farming. Chapter 8    Ordinary Lives: Society in the Early Republic 233 Merchants – traded overseas Social Groups Laborers – did manual work for others Traders – shopkeepers, peddlers “Market Revolution” Making goods and growing crops to sell to others; growing in importance American Women Society in the Early Republic Indians • Still a large number, especially in the Southeast Jewish Americans • Mainly worked in commerce and lived in cities Public Education • The Republic required educated citizens • Women also needed to be educated • One-room schoolhouses in rural areas Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals • Could not vote or serve on juries • Property belonged to the husband • Took charge of the “private sphere” (home life) Free African Americans • In both North and South • Benjamin Banneker, Phillis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano, Richard Allen • Same-sex preferences seen as illegal; kept secret Supreme Court “Contract Clause” Republican Culture • Paintings of Revolutionary heroes • Literature: Washington Irving & James Fenimore Cooper 242 Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819 Fletcher v. Peck (1810) I, Jack, promise to mow Jill’s lawn for $10. I, Jill, promise to pay Jack $10 once he has mowed my lawn. Jack Jill Signed: ____________ Signed: ____________ Chapter 8    Ordinary Lives: Society in the Early Republic © FCE • Unlawful to photocopy without permission Artisans – blacksmiths, tailors, those in “cottage industries” Farmers – Most Americans lived on family farms; grew food for themselves; family worked as a unit © FCE • Unlawful to photocopy without permission Women’s Rights and Gender Roles in the Pioneer Era Women played an important role as Americans moved westward. There were fewer women than men on the frontier. Life was also more informal. Women played a greater number of roles and had more responsibilities and rights. Women received voting rights in Western territories before they did elsewhere. The Wyoming Territory, for example, became the first place in the United States where women were given the right to vote. Esther Morris, a former New Yorker who had listened to lectures by Susan B. Anthony, persuaded its governor to sponsor women’s suffrage in an effort to reduce lawlessness. At the time, Wyoming had 6,000 adult men and only 1,000 women. Its legislators also hoped to attract more single women to their territory. In 1869, they gave women the right to vote. They also passed laws allowing married women to own property and requiring that female teachers be paid the same salary as men. Wyoming’s example was followed the by territories of Utah (1870) and Washington (1883). In Utah, the Mormons gave the vote to women so that with the help of their wives, they would continue to outnumber non-Mormon voters. In Colorado, voters rejected women’s suffrage in a referendum in 1877 but then approved it in 1893. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was active in promoting the bill and the governor’s wife, Eliza Routt, was a long-time supporter of woman’s suffrage. At the same time, women in the West often faced physical hardships and even loneliness from the lack of companionship with other women. Mollie Dorsey, for example, was eighteen years old when her father decided to move their family to Nebraska. Later, Mollie married and moved to Denver with her husband during the Colorado Gold Rush. She kept a detailed diary, recording her thoughts: “Here there are nothing but rude cabins and board shanties not even plastered. I see such lots of men, but very few ladies and children . . . If the country would only fill up, if there were schools or churches or even some society. All men, all single, or bachelors, and one gets tired of them.” Some Notable Pioneer Women Annie Bidwell (1839–1918) Born in 1839, Annie Bidwell grew up in Washington, D.C. She married John Bidwell, one of the first pioneers in California. Bidwell discovered gold on his land shortly after the discovery at Sutter’s Mill. Annie and John were married in Washington, D.C. in 1868. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, President Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant all attended the wedding. The Bidwells lived in the Sacramento Valley, where Annie promoted women’s rights, temperance, and compulsory education. She became a prominent community leader and philanthropist. She was one of the first supporters of women’s suffrage in California. Their former home in Chico, with 26 rooms, is now a state park. Charley Darkey Parkhurst (1812-1879) Parkhurst was born a woman. She was raised in an orphanage in New England but ran away at the age of 12. She adopted the name of Charley Chapter 13    Manifest Destiny and America’s Westward Expansion 359 Clara Brown (1800–1885) Brown had been a slave in Virginia. She received her freedom and went west to find her three children, who had been sold to other masters. She found only one. She worked as a cook and laundress in Denver at the time of the Colorado Gold Rush. She invested her savings in mines and eventually had $10,000 in savings. Brown was able to help other former slaves. She held Methodist services at her home but also donated to the Catholic and Protestant churches in the Rocky Mountains. Brown was voted into the Society of Colorado Pioneers just before she died in 1885. Mary Ellen Pleasant (1812–1904) Pleasant worked her way out of slavery and helped with the Underground Railroad. She 360 arrived in San Francisco at the time of the Gold Rush, where she passed as a white woman and worked in restaurants. Based on tips she overheard from her customers, she was able to make a large fortune. Pleasant was the first to bring the Underground Railroad to California. In 1859, she went back East to help the abolitionist John Brown. Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) This pioneer woman was born in 1867. Her family moved to Wisconsin when she was only four years old. Later they moved to Minnesota and the Dakota Territory. Laura Wilder became a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse when she was just 16 years old. Two years later she married and left teaching, but her husband became partially paralyzed from an illness. They had other problems: their barn and house caught on fire; there was a drought; and one of their children died. Later Laura and her family moved to Missouri where they were more successful. Laura later began writing of her experiences as a pioneer woman in the series of books Little House on the Prairie. These popular books are still widely read today and describe what frontier life was like for younger readers. Wilder also wrote an account of her experiences for adults that was published after her death, Pioneer Girl. Chapter 13    Manifest Destiny and America’s Westward Expansion © FCE • Unlawful to photocopy without permission and assumed a new identity as a man. In 1849, Charley Parkhurst sailed to San Francisco to participate in the Gold Rush. Also known as “OneEyed Charley,” Parkhurst wore men’s clothes and drove stagecoach routes in Northern and Central California for almost thirty years. Parkhurst wore a patch on one eye, and became one of the most famous California stagecoach drivers. Parkhurst drank whiskey, survived several robberies, and even killed a thief who tried to rob her stagecoach a second time. Wells Fargo awarded Parkhurst a watch with a gold chain. When Parkhurst died, neighbors thought Charley was a man until, when they prepared the body for burial, they were surprised to discover Parkhurst was a woman.