120 A History of Mail Order Brides in Early America

How do you build colonies without women?

Most of the colonial adventurers from England and France who set out for Jamestown, New France, and colonial Louisiana were men. But how do you build and sustain societies and spread European culture—in essence, fulfill the promises of a colonial program—without women?

You can’t. Which is why Marcia Zug, a Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina Law School and author of Buying a Bride: An Engaging History of Mail Order Matches, joins us to explore one of the solutions that England and France used to build their North American colonies: mail order bride programs.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/120

Sponsor Links

• Cornell University Press
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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 036: Abby Swingen, Competing Visions of Empire
• Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became American
• Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
• Episode 079: James Horn, What is a Historical Source? (Colonial Jamestown)
• Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright

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