One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd 
Jim Fergus
Fiction, Published1998
Read Jan. 2008
4.7/5
Why did you choose this book?
From the moment I read the title, I was intrigued…one thousand white women?? I enjoy reading frontier stories, especially those written from a woman’s perspective. It was very hard at times to remember that this was in fact fiction and not a true story and written by a man. And what can you say about finding a good book for $1? =)
Briefly summarize this book without giving away the ending…
May Dodd has lived an unconventional mid-19th century life at 25. She has been living with a man, unmarried and below her station, and has had two of his children. Although life is hard at times, May loves her little family. Her parents, not wanting their daughter’s actions to taint their social standings, take it away from her suddenly one night by sending her off to an insane asylum. May does not know what has happened to her family. Once in the asylum, a strange proposition has been made to her and the other women. They have been propositioned by the US Government to ‘go out west’ for one year and live with the ’savages’ to bring a new generation into being in order to stabilize the Indian and white cultures. This idea frightens the women, but it is their only hope of regaining their freedom. So starts the journey of May and her cohorts to the west, leaving everything they know behind them, to start anew with the unknown.
What did you like most about this book?
I loved this book. The novel is set within May’s journals and letters she writes from when she was in the asylum throughout her journey west. May journeys with some very interesting groups of women, noting that many came from the asylum like May and others so independent that they volunteered for the experience. The women were initially very afraid of the Cheyenne, but I loved hearing that they soon began to like and, some, even love their new husbands and friends. The women started the journey as an obligation to themselves, to find their own freedom, and wound up not only fighting for their own and their children’s freedoms, but also that of the Cheyenne, that of their home.
I loved the book too!! Any other frontier books about women you can recommend???
Hi Nancy! Thanks for stopping by. Let’s see…I’d definitely recommend These Is My Words by Nancy Turner, which I read in July and have posted a review, this is also written in the form of a diary and the first in a series and I’m looking forward to the 2nd – Sarah’s Quilt.
Also Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! is one of my favorites. Another author that I haven’t read but is in my TBR pile is Sandra Dallas. Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions for me!