Gold Rush Brides

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History 1000, course PMWA Gold Rush Brides The song “Gold Rush Brides” by Natalie Merchant has a historical meaning to it that dates back to the mid-19th century. During the 1850’s people of that time that occupied the southern and eastern part of the United States wanted to start heading west. There were many reasons to move west, there was gold, silver, and extremely cheap land which at that time people valued very highly, so to sum-up the reason for moving west was to hopefully become wealthy. Natalie Merchant’s song Gold Rush Brides was the experience of traveling and living in the west. But it was not in the perspective of males but of that of females. This was very interesting because at that time the male was the dominate figure in the house, woman and children depended heavily on the male. So it was the choice of the male to move out west and woman had no say, they were forced to listen to their husbands and follow. So the song expresses the woman’s hard ship and her losses. So the husbands told them that they were heading west, they did not know exactly where in the west. Like the song says “Pass the talking wire from where to who knows?” so they were just following their husbands orders. Then the song says “Where a man could drift, in legendary myth, by roaming over spaces. The land was free and the price was right.” This part of the song refers to the idea that if you move out west you could become extremely wealthy because it has been done by others. Also that the land was free because there was no one occupying it (the Indians were occupying it but they were either killed or forced out of the land), and if you wanted the land it could be acquired for a small sum. Also to show the man’s power and strength of woman and there history with the Indians she says “Such power in her hand as she hails the wagon man's family. I see Indians that crawl
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