Reading Guide Questions for "Families in Flux"--Women in Waiting in the Westward Movement, by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith

Reading Guide Questions for "Families in Flux"--Women in Waiting in the Westward Movement, by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith

1) Why was Pamelia Fergus concerned about her home situation in October of 1860?

2) Give two reasons why thousands of men went West.

3) What sector of the American people has traditionally been unrepresented in the history of the westward movement?

4) Why did Pamelia Fergus refer to herself and others like her as "widows" even though their husbands were alive?

5) How did the men involved in the settling of the West depend on the homefront while seeking their fortunes?

6) What sources did authors Peavy and Smith use to assess the impact of separation on the families of the men who went West?

7) True or False. The great numbers of single men in mining camps and on overland trails prove that the

westward movement was largely one of bold young bachelors. Explain your response.

8) Why does "misery loves company" have relevance for westering husbands and their wives at home?

9) Why did Ohio's Mahala Rayner beg her husband to tell her the truth about his gold rush experience?

10) Explain how gender privilege affected wives of the men heading West? (Men were ___________ while women were _________________.)

11) Why did Wisconsin's Mary Warner in 1898 pledge not to write her husband a single word?

12) In addition to the promises of opportunities in the West, what negative factors were sometimes incentives for men to go West?

13) How was James Fergus the exception to the norm as far as gold mining was concerned?

14) What did Joseph Kenney admit to his father-in-law about the gold mining experience?

15) While unsuccessful in their quest for gold, how did some make their fortunes in the West?

16) What was the "dominating social motif of the nineteenth century West"?

17) Like gold hunters, homesteaders often failed. Give two reasons for these failures.

18) What is the significance of the expression "to see the Elephant" in terms of the westward migration?

19) How were the wives left behind worse off than their westering husbands?

20) Why was the West appealing to criminals?

21) What role did the politics of the 1860's play in the westward migration?

22) How were the "single" married women far worse off than either spinsters or widows?

23) Why was the traditional gender division of labor inoperable when husbands went West?

24)List four socially acceptable ways for women to earn money while husbands were absent in the West.

25) How did Newton Chandler express his disapproval when his wife went to work in the Lowell mills?

26) How was the profession of female teacher viewed by society in the mid-1800's?

27) In what ways might older children help their mothers out when money was scarce?

28) How were wives viewed when they were forced by circumstances to become business women?

29) How did absent husbands' efforts to protect wives in business matters sometimes fail?

30) While friends and neighbors might assume that westering husbands were sending a living allowance to their families, what was the reality for many home front "widows"?

31) In fourteen years, miner Leroy Warner sent home nearly _____________. What did his wife Mary do with most of the money?

32) What "deal" did Augusta Shipman try to make with her husband, Clark?

33) What was one example of women's ingenuity when it applied to family economy?

34) What did diaries of Forty-niners reveal about men's changing attitudes toward "women's work"?

35) Why did Pamelia Fergus consider herself lucky when she compared her situation to those of her fellow "widows"?

36) List four examples of how women in waiting depended on each other.

37) What role did absent fathers attempt to maintain concerning their children even though they might be in the West for several years?

38) What postal problems added to family stress while husbands were westering?

39) What temptation faced by husbands in the West was most worrisome to wives left behind? How real was this problem?

40) After long separations, some wives and families eventually went West themselves. List three ways in which the passage was made.

Agree or disagree with the following in a thoughtful paragraph.

"Life as a home-front widow brought positive and long-lasting gains to the women in waiting."