Washington Women’s Homesteading, 1862–1949: Developing a Historic Context of Women’s Homesteading Experiences

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Homestead Act of 1862 enabled feme sole—women who were legally single, widowed, divorced, or deserted—to claim up to 160 acres of land. In Washington State 8.5 million acres (20%) of lands were claimed through the Homestead Act; and although feme sole were a minority of these homesteaders, their homesteading experiences illustrate important themes of American settlement and industry. As a place-based heritage, women’s homesteading history presents a rare prospect to study and preserve sites of women’s history, including the history of women’s rights, the history of suffrage, and queer history. One of the objectives of the Washington Women’s Homesteading History project is to explore the spatial and temporal patterns of homesteading across Washington State, to understand women’s motivations for homesteading and immigration. This poster presents summary data of women’s homesteading history in Washington’s Channeled Scablands, Okanogan Highlands, Northern Puget Sound, Southern Puget Sound, Southwest Washington, and Washington Coast regions, and explores future context themes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35739.0