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Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
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Publisher's summary
More than a quarter of a million Americans crossed the continental United States between 1840 and 1870, going west in one of the greatest migrations of modern times. The frontiersmen have become an integral part of our history and folklore, but the Westering experiences of American women are equally central to an accurate picture of what life was like on the frontier.
Through the diaries, letters, and reminiscences of women who participated in this migration, Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey gives us primary source material on the lives of these women, who kept campfires burning with buffalo chips and dried weeds, gave birth to and cared for children along primitive and dangerous roads, drove teams of oxen, picked berries, milked cows, and cooked meals in the middle of a wilderness that was a far cry from the homes they had left back east. Still (and often under the disapproving eyes of their husbands) they found time to write brave letters home or to jot a few weary lines at night into the diaries that continue to enthrall us.
In her new foreword, Professor Mary Clearman Blew explores the enduring fascination with this subject among both historians and the general public, and places Schlissel's groundbreaking work into an intriguing historical and cultural context.
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The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman
- Women in the West, Book 1
- By: Margot Mifflin
- Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1851, Olive Oatman was a 13-year-old pioneer traveling west toward Zion, with her Mormon family. Within a decade, she was a white Indian with a chin tattoo, caught between cultures. The Blue Tattoo tells the harrowing story of this forgotten heroine of frontier America. Orphaned when her family was brutally killed by Yavapai Indians, Oatman lived as a slave to her captors for a year before being traded to the Mohave, who tattooed her face and raised her as their own.
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Mispronunciations
- By R. Brown on 06-07-18
By: Margot Mifflin
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Nothing Daunted
- The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West
- By: Dorothy Wickenden
- Narrated by: Dorothy Wickenden, Margaret Nichols
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1916, Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, close friends from childhood and graduates of Smith College, left home in Auburn, New York, for the wilds of northwestern Colorado. Bored by their soci-ety luncheons, charity work, and the effete young men who courted them, they learned that two teach-ing jobs were available in a remote mountaintop schoolhouse and applied—shocking their families and friends.
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Not as Described
- By Sara on 08-10-14
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Stampede
- Gold Fever and Disaster in the Klondike
- By: Brian Castner
- Narrated by: Brian Castner
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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A gripping and wholly original account of the epic human tragedy that was the great Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98. One hundred thousand men and women rushed heedlessly north to make their fortunes; very few did, but many thousands of them died in the attempt. The unvarnished tale of this mass migration is always striking, revealing the amazing truth of what people will do for a chance to be rich.
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Get-Rich-Quick Schemes Still Don't Work
- By Renee Quistorf on 10-29-21
By: Brian Castner
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The Rush
- America's Fevered Quest for Fortune, 1848-1853
- By: Edward Dolnick
- Narrated by: Bernard Setaro Clark
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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In the spring of 1848, rumors began to spread that gold had been discovered in a remote spot in the Sacramento Valley. A year later, newspaper headlines declared "Gold Fever!" as hundreds of thousands of men and women borrowed money, quit their jobs, and allowed themselves - for the first time ever - to imagine a future of ease and splendor.
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Loved it. Want to hear more of Clarks work.
- By Carlos on 01-11-16
By: Edward Dolnick
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Dreams of El Dorado
- A History of the American West
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Matt Kugler
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. He takes us from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. He shows how the migrants' dreams drove them to feats of courage and perseverance that put their stay-at-home cousins to shame - and how those same dreams also drove them to outrageous acts of violence against indigenous peoples and one another. El Dorado was at least as elusive in the West as it ever was in the East.
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Dreadful narration
- By Fredmo on 12-09-19
By: H. W. Brands
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My India
- By: Jim Corbett
- Narrated by: Sandeep Pillai
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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This book talks about the experiences of hunter and conservationist Jim Corbett, during his years in the United Provinces, or what is now known as Uttarakhand. Here we see a different side to Corbett, not as the intrepid hunter of big cats but a man who blends seamlessly with the mountain folk of Northern India. Join him in his adventures and feel the thrills of hunting; follow him into dense forests as he encounters a dreaded dacoit who has a heart of gold; and enjoy the tales of love, loyalty, and resilience of simple villagers.
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Fantastic stories of a very interesting time and place
- By T. M. on 03-18-24
By: Jim Corbett
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A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains
- By: Isabella L. Bird
- Narrated by: Flo Gibson
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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These are the valiant and lyrically descriptive letters, written in 1873, by Isabella Bird, a courageous and spirited Englishwoman, telling her sister of her adventures on horseback over 800 miles of American wilderness.
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The Solution to the Indian Problem
- By Samar on 09-26-16
By: Isabella L. Bird
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Death Comes to the Village
- Kurland St. Mary Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: Catherine Lloyd
- Narrated by: Susannah Tyrrell
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Major Robert Kurland has returned to the quiet vistas of Kurland St. Mary to recuperate from the horrors of Waterloo. However injured his body may be, his mind is as active as ever. Too active, perhaps. When he glimpses a shadowy figure from his bedroom window struggling with a heavy load, the tranquil façade of the village begins to loom sinister....
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Starts slowly, gets better
- By TabithaD on 02-16-24
By: Catherine Lloyd
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Slave Life in Georgia
- A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Now in England
- By: John Brown
- Narrated by: Damian Salandy
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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This account of the life, sufferings, and escape of a fugitive slave was published in London in 1855 by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. It is the autobiography of a simple, sturdy man who spent 30 years as a slave in Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia.
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Slave Life in Georgia
- By Deedra on 03-27-19
By: John Brown
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Trials of the Earth
- The True Story of a Pioneer Woman
- By: Mary Mann Hamilton
- Narrated by: Barbara Benjamin Creel
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Near the end of her life, Mary Mann Hamilton (1866-c.1936) was encouraged to record her experiences as a female pioneer. The result is the only known firsthand account of a remarkable woman thrust into the center of taming the American South - surviving floods, tornadoes, and fires; facing bears, panthers, and snakes; managing a boardinghouse in Arkansas that was home to an eccentric group of settlers; and running a logging camp in Mississippi that blazed a trail for development in the Mississippi Delta.
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Long and slow.
- By Ren on 10-31-17
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On the Border with Crook
- By: John Gregory Bourke
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 20 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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John Gregory Bourke served General George Crook for 15 years and was his right-hand man. This work is an account of his time with the legendary US Army officer in the post-Civil War West. On the Border with Crook is a written recollection of Crook’s campaigns during the American Indian Wars. Bourke makes the American frontier come alive with his description. He also included descriptions not only of Crook and his fellow cavalrymen, but also of legendary Native American leaders. Bourke argues that Crook etched his name into the annals of American history.
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Fantastic Review of the Late Indian Wars
- By Ian K O'Malley on 08-07-20
What listeners say about Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Karen D
- 10-28-23
The second half of the book was the best
The first half of the book was bits and pieces of different peoples stories which isn’t as interesting . The second half were whole diaries which is what I prefer. Other than that I found the book interesting.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-16-24
Interesting history
It is impressive to learn the history of (WASP) women making their journey westward. I was disappointed by the authors multiple inclusions of racial slurs that added nothing to the story but made me cringe to keep listening. It’s certainly a very one sided version of traveling westward.
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