|
|
|
Reviews
Children's Voices from the Trail: Narratives of the Platte River Road
|
By Rosemary Gudmundson Palmer
|
Arthur H. Clark Company, Spokane, Wash., 2002. Illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, 336 pages. $39.50 cloth.
|
Reviewed by Susan Badger Doyle
Pendleton, Oregon
|
|
|
|
During the western emigrant trails era, 1841–1869, at least
one-fifth of all overland travelers were children. While excellent
studies of the adult experience on the western overland trails are
available, until now there has been a dearth of similar analysis
of young people's experiences. Children's Voices from the Trail:
Narratives of the Platte River Road provides a much-needed comprehensive,
scholarly study of children's and adolescents' perspectives on the
overland experience.
|
1
|
|
Rosemary Gudmundson Palmer methodically analyzes 23 diaries, letters, and journals written by young Euro-American pioneers and 430 reminiscences by adults who made the trek as children. The contemporary documents were written by children aged ten through sixteen, with most of the writers being girls. A notable strength of the work is Palmer's classification and description of the different types of documents in the study. She asserts that daily diaries, contemporary letters, and journals (rewritten diaries) express an immediate and personal response to the experience, in contrast to reminiscences, which have been filtered through memory and later experience. She further examines the types of documents in terms of the age, gender, and personality of the writer. |
2
|
|
Palmer deftly weaves extracts from the documents into a thematic narrative that reveals each child's varied and unique perspective on the overland experience. The documents reveal how nineteenth-century culture influenced young people's opinions, attitudes, interests, and fears, although in different ways. Diary entries focus narrowly on daily life on the trail, while reminiscences written later in life expand on the experience and provide fuller context. Reminiscences have distinct forms that Palmer characterizes as "I remember" and "we remember" accounts. "I remember" recollections are personal childhood memories, while the "we remember" types are those reinforced or altered over time by family or community. |
3
|
|
The young people's documents express relationships with parents, siblings, train members, and others on the trail. Diary and letter writers differed from reminiscence writers in expressing feelings about parents and siblings. Diarists occasionally mentioned family members, but older pioneers remembered family as a major aspect of the overland experience. Other train members and people encountered along the trail are common topics in young people's accounts. Reflecting Victorian prejudices, young writers often revealed mixed feelings about "Missourians," Mormons, and Indians. Indians are particularly evident in the accounts. Descriptions of their appearance and behavior during encounters on the trail are often graphic, revealing as much about the Indians as the writers who recorded their observations. An enlightening chapter is devoted to the "Goldilocks" motif in the documents. This was the commonly held belief among emigrants that Indians were fascinated with golden-haired white children, for whom they would offer to trade many horses. |
4
|
|
Palmer's study is well written and flows smoothly through a wide range of topics. It is a pioneering work that draws upon the earlier work of noted scholars, including John Mack Faragher, Lillian Schlissel, Glenda Riley, Elliott West, and John D. Unruh. In focusing on young people, this work fills a void and is a significant contribution to trail scholarship. Palmer concludes by pointing out the need for future studies of the viewpoints of members of minority groups and emigrants on the southern trails and for comparisons of writings by adults and children. This book is both readable and useful. It contains a wealth of primary material and scholarly analysis that should be of interest to trail scholars, educators, and general readers. |
5
|
|
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|