Envisioning eden: race, gender, and family in Oregon Territory newspaper discourses
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2012
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Abstract
Oregon's territorial period (1848-1859) was a time of instability and change: no one knew what Oregon would look like after the settling phase, and many sought to control Oregon's fate. Based on the close reading of over 1300 newspapers encompassmg mne years of the Oregon Spectator, the Oregon Statesman and the Oregonian, as well as the application of gender and discourse theories, this thesis examines three main themes: race, gender and power. The group of elite, white males who formed early in the territorial period envisioned a white society with a strict gender hierarchy, organized around the patriarchal nuclear family. These men projected their ideal society through the pages of Oregon's three main newspapers, modifying eastern, urban ideologies to fit the needs of their settler-colonial society, using race and gender discursively as tools to attempt to position themselves as the legitimate holders of power in Oregon.
The Anglo-American male elite created a regionally and historically specific modification of eastern gender prescriptions, adjusting the findings of previous historians. In variation of the ideology of domesticity found by Barbara Welter in 1966, I found that the ideal role projected for women centered on industriousness and submission, while the core of ideal masculinity was a mix of the self-made and passionate manhoods found by Anthony Rotundo in 1993. The Donation Land Act brought instability to Oregon in the form of thousands of new settlers, and in the provision that Metis men could claim land. The Anglo-American vision of an ideal society thus reflected the fear of the threats to the elites power base that came from the push for women's land and political rights, nonwhite intrusion, and their children's not following their value system.
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Bibliography: p. 131-140
Includes copies of animal protocol approval and copyright permission. Original copies with original Partial Copyright Licence.
Includes copies of animal protocol approval and copyright permission. Original copies with original Partial Copyright Licence.
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Price, K. L. (2012). Envisioning eden: race, gender, and family in Oregon Territory newspaper discourses (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/4613