ipl-logo

Summary Of They Saw The Elephant By Rann Levy

725 Words3 Pages

In the years between 1849 and 1855, thousands of people dared to take on the perilous journey to California filled with hardship, death, and disease for their chance at a “golden opportunity.” For many years, the Gold Rush has been seen as a male dominated even in history with little regard for women. However, JoAnn Levy, in They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush, attempts to debunk the assumption that the participants in the Gold Rush were exclusively male.
As expressed by Levy, women played fast and loose with stereotypes of the time and assumed that if men could go, they could too. As for the type of women that took on the journey, it varied. Some women came alone, many more with their husbands, fathers, brothers. Some came for the gold, to make their “pile” and some came to stay. With the use of primary documents such as, diaries, letters, journals, court documents and contemporary newspaper accounts, Levy is able to illustrate how these women and their accomplishments fought to overcome gender standards and formally take part in establishing California societies and shaping a …show more content…

One case study that shows this is Luzena Wilson. Wilson started out as a small cook who was ignorant to the fact that she could make a profit from her cooking until a man traded five dollars for one of her biscuits. But once she learned how to price her work, she, along with her husband were very successful and even bought shares in a hotel. Luzena stated, “Yes, we worked, we did things that our high-toned servants would now look at aghast, and say it was impossible for a woman to do.” Wilson is just one example of a female success story. The presence of women in the gold camps had established immense economic activity and instant wealth for them and their

Show More
Related
1063 Words | 5 Pages

(Page 75 of “Gold Rush Women”) This quote comes to show that women who worked near Klondike in bars or other places had a strong emotional impact on miners. During this time, miners realized the difficulty and odds they had for getting rich, and they were very desperate and miserable. However, Kate managed to loosen their spirits, and though she didn’t do all that much, women like her still had quite a huge impact on affecting the miners of the klondike gold rush. Some women also decided to take on the challenge into the journey to Klondike.

Read More
1279 Words | 6 Pages

In the late 19th century, the United States industrialized. The Western frontier became more accessible as railroads connected the coastlines. The West became less of a place of myth and more of a place of accessibility to those who wanted new opportunities. However, the West was still wild, and a Gilded Age-era woman should not have had to face it alone. A truly western woman faced many contradictions.

Read More
1221 Words | 5 Pages

Name: Joshua Shou Mrs. Farley, Mr. Kennedy Humanities 9 Niemoller November 16th The Effect of Harsh Environment, The Role of Women, and Economical Trade on the Klondike Gold Rush. Have you ever heard of something and thought something was too good to be true, and then you realize it was a fraud all along? The Klondike Gold Rush caused a similar reaction, as over 90,000 prospectors left their jobs and homes to journey into the Klondike in search of Gold to end up empty-handed. During their journey, they had to cope with extreme harsh conditions through Alaska as well as interact and trade with the natives.

Read More
490 Words | 2 Pages

Around the late 18th to early 19th century, colonial American New England life was centered on living independently and being finally free from the British Empire after the Revolutionary War. Establishing control of a newly founded government with set functions and a first president, there were progressive changes that America had to act upon post-war. However, behind the political aspects that are greatly highlighted in American history, the roles of women in society, particularly midwives shouldn’t be cast aside. Although women were largely marginalized in early New England life because of their gender, nevertheless Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A Midwife’s Tale is instructive because it demonstrates the privilege of men’s authority in society

Read More
426 Words | 2 Pages

Because the American West was dominated by men, the frontier seldomly addressed the role of women, while also minimal developing overall femininity. However, the embodiment and existence of femininity itself was a precursor to the cowboy’s success within Westerns. After All, the cowboy needed the female in order to be married and keep his masculine figure in tact. Although the industrialized East created an allure of the liberation for the cowboy, the intensity of the Old West grew as the East came to alter its form. Thus, manhood was becoming re-established within both sexes.

Read More
1219 Words | 5 Pages

At the news of the gold discovery a steady immigration commenced which continued until 1876, at which time the Chinese in the United States numbered 151,000 of whom 116,000 were in the state of California” (Norton 3). The Chinese additionally went to California because it was a developing state, wanted to find jobs and settle there, and “American businessmen actively sought Chinese laborers...” (Whiting

Read More
1108 Words | 5 Pages

The Market Revolution generated a drastic change in the United States economy and altered gender barriers while at the same time accomplishing this in a provocative manner. This economic boom occurred around the first half of the 19th Century. The economic boom was achieved by inventions such as a transcontinental railroad system which resulted in a better transportation system which improved trade and the cotton gin which sped up the rate of removing seeds from cotton fiber. However like what the great Hugo said, “The brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over we realize this: that the human race has been roughly handled, but that it has advanced”.

Read More
897 Words | 4 Pages

Alex Gaines HISTORY 265 Melissa Payne 6 October 2017 MIDTERM EXAM FIRST AMERICAN WOMEN How did gender roles define the lives of Native Americans before contact? How did European men react to women’s roles in Native societies? Why did they believe women worked more than men?

Read More
392 Words | 2 Pages

More than 140 women came to Virginia from 1620 to 1622. Women in colonial America had extremely hard working conditions. They were called upon to enable household order. Women were to wake up early in the morning before the sun rose to the late afternoons after the sun went down to maintain the house while preparing meals (which could take hours) before the husband woke up, doing laundry, mending clothes, livestock, working in the fields and gardens, tending to the children (most mid wives had 5-8 children), and many other tasks. Most of all the women abilities were learned from their mothers.

Read More
1112 Words | 5 Pages

The life of Women in the late 1800s. Life for women in the 1800s began to change as they pushed for more rights and equality. Still, men were seen as better than women, this way of thinking pushed women to break out from the limitations imposed on their sex. In the early 1800s women had virtually no rights and ultimately were not seen as people but they rather seen as items of possession, it wasn’t until the late 1800s that women started to gain more rights. The Civil War actually opened opportunities for women to gain more rights, because with many of the men gone to war women were left with the responsibilities that men usually fulfilled during that time period.

Read More
920 Words | 4 Pages

Many women had to stay home making only 8% of California female. The American Dream, ultimately, was only applicable by American men during the California Gold Rush. Not only was the Gold Rush kept from women and foreigners, it also discriminated against

Read More
1009 Words | 5 Pages

Solutions to the elephant poaching crisis. Imagine this: Your on a safari traversing the Sahara while riding among a stunning elephant. As you all examine the majestic beast, all of a sudden, you hear a loud Bang. suddenly, you see a group of buggies surrounding the creature and your car. Though no incidents of such situations have been recorded, every day, according to the U.N, “around one hundred elephants are killed by poachers”, which poses a problem for the species.

Read More
1034 Words | 5 Pages

Carol Berkin’s book, Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for American Independence, proclaims that the Revolutionary War was "the last great romance with war". It was more so a time of turbulence and disorder. The American Revolution did not discriminate against man or woman, class, race nor culture. The Revolution took a toll on the families during this time in history and it also made women important figures. Women were forced to take charge over their families and even on the battlefront.

Read More
465 Words | 2 Pages

Women are getting outstanding jobs as they become more individualistic role models because women want to do for themselves

Read More
1815 Words | 8 Pages

It is proven that gender does contribute to a difference in wages in society and there for another cause of wealth inequality. The U.N. has found that gender discrimination is still a significant factor in holding many women and children around the world in poverty. In many countries, there is a gender income gap in the labor market. For example, in America, statistics show that “The median full-time salary for women is 78 percent of that of men”; despite the fact women make up half the workforce. One of the reasons women earn less income/money in their lifetime is usually because they are single mums and/or have more people/family to support on their

Read More

More about Summary Of They Saw The Elephant By Rann Levy

Related Topics

Open Document