Shannon L. (gwennydear) reviewed They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush on + 52 more book reviews
I purchased this book for a research project, and I wasn't disappointed. It is a very comprehensive account of what women dealt with during the California Gold Rush, complete with documented facts from newspapers of the day. Though I purchased this for research purposes I found myself drawn into the book and unable to put it down - it is just as entertaining as it is informative.
Cathy C. (cathyskye) -
When Levy first began to do research, some numbers just didn't add up. Men who wrote about the California Gold Rush of 1849 were quick to say that those racing to the gold fields were almost all exclusively male, but statistics and the historical record do not bear that out. Levy kept looking, thinking that someone, somewhere, had to have written a history of the women of the Gold Rush, and although she found books about Australians, Chileans, blacks, Irish, French, and other national and ethnic groups represented among the 49ers, there was not a single book about the women.
In They Saw the Elephant, Levy tells us how the women traveled to California, what they did when they got there, and for several of them, their stories are told all the way to the ends of their lives. I have read a few books about women in the Old West (including the period and setting of the Gold Rush), and I'm happy to say that Levy doesn't travel over old ground; Lotta Crabtree and Lola Montez are the only "repeats" in the long and varied list of women she tells readers about. That was much appreciated.
I am fortunate to live in a time when so many women's stories are finally being told. Many of the female 49ers were every bit as strong, inventive, and colorful as their male counterparts, and thanks to JoAnn Levy, I now know more about them and will continue to learn with the bibliography she provides in her book.
In They Saw the Elephant, Levy tells us how the women traveled to California, what they did when they got there, and for several of them, their stories are told all the way to the ends of their lives. I have read a few books about women in the Old West (including the period and setting of the Gold Rush), and I'm happy to say that Levy doesn't travel over old ground; Lotta Crabtree and Lola Montez are the only "repeats" in the long and varied list of women she tells readers about. That was much appreciated.
I am fortunate to live in a time when so many women's stories are finally being told. Many of the female 49ers were every bit as strong, inventive, and colorful as their male counterparts, and thanks to JoAnn Levy, I now know more about them and will continue to learn with the bibliography she provides in her book.
Thomas F. (hardtack) -
This is a great read about women in the West. It includes tales of suffering to get to California, and what they experienced once there. Here are some highlights....
A chapter titled "Working Women," showed how women became rich performing common household chores. As one newly arrived woman was baking biscuits for her family over a campfire, a miner offered her $5 for just one. Now this was $5 in 1850s money, not today's. Stunned, she hesitated, but the miner then doubled his offer. As a result, many women opened cookhouses and bakeries charging, what was then, large sums for meals. Of course, the makings were also expensive, but many women made large fortunes.
One site on the Web has $5 in 1858 dollars comparable to a minimum of $157 in 2019 dollars.
One woman later wrote she sold $18,000 worth of small pies in one year, with one third of that profit. This at a time when a few hundred dollars a year was a large salary back East.
Another women, following the gold camps, convinced a man to haul her Dutch ovens to Nevada at a cost of $700. She didn't have the money, but offered to pay it out of her future profits. Once at the gold camp, she set up two boards on stones as tables, cooking under a tree with her cooking tools hung on nails driven into the tree. Within a few weeks she used her profits to pay off the hauler and erect a building for a restaurant, and then a hotel for 200 boarders
The same applied to women who were good seamstresses or did washing. This at a time when men in the goldfields sent their clothes to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) or to China to be washed.
One man wrote home that such women were making twice the salary of a Congressman!
So, I think the best advice a man could take in the 1850s would be to marry a good cook or seamstress, not paying any attention to her age or looks, and leave immediately for California. Once there, he would live a life of ease off his wife's earnings. Oh....Why couldn't I have lived back then!
Alas, in the 1850s, the laws in California were aberrant!
Another chapter, "Love and Marriage," explained how women in California maintained all the rights to property they owned before their marriage, and even property they earned in cooperation with their husbands during marriage. To quote one male California lawyer writing to his sister:
"Laws are so liberal.... For instance, when the husband and wife are doing business of any kind together, the law considers her an equal partner, and gives her one-half of the profits and she can sue for them."
I'd continue with his letter, but it just gets worse! For example, wives could also start divorce proceedings against their husbands, and the courts usually approved those cases. My God, what happened to our country? No wonder California is so screwed up today. :-)
A chapter titled "Working Women," showed how women became rich performing common household chores. As one newly arrived woman was baking biscuits for her family over a campfire, a miner offered her $5 for just one. Now this was $5 in 1850s money, not today's. Stunned, she hesitated, but the miner then doubled his offer. As a result, many women opened cookhouses and bakeries charging, what was then, large sums for meals. Of course, the makings were also expensive, but many women made large fortunes.
One site on the Web has $5 in 1858 dollars comparable to a minimum of $157 in 2019 dollars.
One woman later wrote she sold $18,000 worth of small pies in one year, with one third of that profit. This at a time when a few hundred dollars a year was a large salary back East.
Another women, following the gold camps, convinced a man to haul her Dutch ovens to Nevada at a cost of $700. She didn't have the money, but offered to pay it out of her future profits. Once at the gold camp, she set up two boards on stones as tables, cooking under a tree with her cooking tools hung on nails driven into the tree. Within a few weeks she used her profits to pay off the hauler and erect a building for a restaurant, and then a hotel for 200 boarders
The same applied to women who were good seamstresses or did washing. This at a time when men in the goldfields sent their clothes to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) or to China to be washed.
One man wrote home that such women were making twice the salary of a Congressman!
So, I think the best advice a man could take in the 1850s would be to marry a good cook or seamstress, not paying any attention to her age or looks, and leave immediately for California. Once there, he would live a life of ease off his wife's earnings. Oh....Why couldn't I have lived back then!
Alas, in the 1850s, the laws in California were aberrant!
Another chapter, "Love and Marriage," explained how women in California maintained all the rights to property they owned before their marriage, and even property they earned in cooperation with their husbands during marriage. To quote one male California lawyer writing to his sister:
"Laws are so liberal.... For instance, when the husband and wife are doing business of any kind together, the law considers her an equal partner, and gives her one-half of the profits and she can sue for them."
I'd continue with his letter, but it just gets worse! For example, wives could also start divorce proceedings against their husbands, and the courts usually approved those cases. My God, what happened to our country? No wonder California is so screwed up today. :-)
