Page 69 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRONTIER P H I L OSOP HY: E U R OPEAN D I SCOURSE

spread that English-speaking societies were innately superior, and that
it was women's duty to spread white "civilization" and "truth" around
the world. Women's culture demanded that women serve others, espe­
cially "savages" and "inferior" peoples. Dating from the sixteenth cen­
tury was the growing belief that white Christians must save from the
depths of depravity nonwhite peoples, who were basically noble.
Women, also noble at heart, had a special mission to save those who
were "primitive" and "barbarous ." Because whites believed they were
distinct and exceptional, they developed a will to power that under­
wrote colonialism. 13
Like middle- and upper-class white American women during the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, English women of the same
classes came to view benevolence as linked with white dominance.
Gendered maxims assured women that they were to " civilize" wherever
they went, do good as they understood it to others, and provide a model
of womanhood and of the " civilized" world for all peoples they encoun­
tered. According to female ideology, white women would bring
improved health, religion, and lifestyles to indigenous peoples on world
frontiers. I 4 For women, Christian morality blotted out the reality that
England stood to gain economically from colonization.I5 By the mid-
1800s, women's literature immersed its readers in the idea that white
Victorians could change the world. I 6 Thus did growing numbers of
English women join the ranks of teachers, missionaries, and settlers
heading toward India, Kenya, and the American West.
Reformist sentiment drove white women all over Europe to join
one migration or another. They fully expected to take over the invaded
area, even if original inhabitants resisted. As in the United States, the
opportunity to help others was compelling because it affirmed a
woman's strength of character and willingness to forego a life of com­
fort to relocate in a "primitive" place for the good of others. Even
women who succumbed more to the parts of migration philosophy that
urged people to "make good" or to "succeed" in capitalistic terms
believed they would still be helpful. Because women would carry white
"civilization" with them, even those who were not missionaries and
teachers would model and spread the "superior " ways of white peoples.
As late in the world colonial era as 1895, the British prime minister,

6 I