Mail-order brides of Colonial America

Mathew Cohen, historicalgenius.com, 2/22; Ashley Wells, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The peculiar origins of the first "brides" in Colonial America

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Most have probably heard of "mail-order brides." But that kind of thing has been happening in the USA since before mail, mail order, the dawn of the internet — even before there was a US Postal Service. No one tell Kevin Costner.

What if people knew this bizarre industry dates back hundreds of years? Yes, really, centuries. Mail-order brides were essential to the foundation of the United States of America.

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It was all to do with who moved to North America in the first place. After an expedition spearheaded by the Virginia Company of London, English settlers founded "James Fort" — later known as Jamestown.

While it eventually became famous as the first permanent English settlement in the USA, Jamestown was originally renowned for another curious reason.

Finding their feet

I'm ready to do it for the family, Mom.

Life wasn't easy there. Starvation and disease wracked the population of Jamestown and left the settlers having to adapt by expanding their agricultural activities:

They diversified into tobacco crops, for instance, which made some folks wealthy. Despite this, not everyone was happy. Although there was the case of successful tobacco pioneer John Rolfe marrying the famed and beautiful Native American Princess Pocahontas, most white men were single.

Pocahontas' induction into white culture, conversion to Christianity, marriage to European

.

The grave male-female imbalance

By 1619, almost all of the inhabitants of Jamestown were male and alone. Most settlers were unable to find wives.

Yet, while this inability to find love, companionship, and marriage was indeed a legitimate concern, there was an even larger issue at play:

Without females who could conceive children, Jamestown would not last beyond a single generation.

An unattractive pitch

Why was the gender imbalance in Jamestown so enormous? Many females were reluctant to leave behind their comfortable lives in Europe for a future of uncertainty in North America.

And when reports of famine, starvation, and disease reached England, any open-mindedness girls and women may have had was likely quashed. From then on, Jamestown continued to deteriorate.  More

Not a Nation of Immigrants (Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz)

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