Page 75 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

F R O N T I E R P H I L OSOPHY: EUROPEAN D I S C O U R S E

graceful western women were "well entitled" to chivalrous attention.
Gerstacker added that women inspired respect by their energy and
grace.37 Many others agreed that women's moral standards were high
and that they exhibited a certain delicacy in their manners, both of
which elicited male esteem.38
Furthermore, European men made excuses f o r seemingly cool and
indifferent f r ontiersmen. One stated that such behavior did not indicate
a lack of affection, merely an attempt to maintain privacy and dignity. 39
Others argued that undemonstrative men showed their true fe elings by
allowing women to appear anywhere without fe ar of insult or injury.4 0
In 1 8 49, the Englishman Alexander Mackay was astounded to discover
that men would perform "gallant self-denial" by stopping spitting and
hewing in the presence of women.41 One wrapped up the debate by
saying that western men had self-reliance, common sense, and "the man­
liness that under all circumstances does honor to itself by the uniform
respect paid to woman."42
On other issues, European men disagreed among themselves. For
instance, Gerstacker disliked the f r ontier custom decreeing that women
could eat only after the men had finished. During the 1820S, a German
traveler claimed that women were always served before the men. In
1 8 42, English author Charles Dickens noted that "no man sat down until
the ladies were seated." In 1 8 45, the naturalist Charles Lyell stated that
women always seated themselves at the table before men.43
When f e male travelers, who were f a r f e wer in number than men,
offered their opinions on the respect extended to western women they
revealed a very different situation. They fe lt that chivalry on the part of
fr ontiersmen was little more than a sham, phony in intent and limited
in nature. In 1 8 38, Harriet Martineau, an English author and traveler,
derided chivalry as a poor substitute f o r justice. In her eyes, western
"ungentle, tyrannical" men fe ll f a r below their own democratic princi­
ples in the treatment of their women. 44 Another Englishwoman, Frances
Trollope, also doubted the value that western men placed upon their
women. As she watched women "amusing" themselves by engaging in
strange religious exercises at a f r ontier revival, she raised the question
that if western men valued their women as men ought, "would such
scenes be permitted among them?"45