THE RUNAWAY BRIDE, the second book in my bride-ship series, is now available!
Bride-ship series, you might be asking? What exactly is that?
In the 1860’s dozens of women sailed from England to the Pacific Northwest with the destination of Victoria in Vancouver Island (which was at that time still a colony of England and not yet part of Canada). As strange as it may seem to us today, these women went for the purpose of getting married to the men who lived there on what became known as “bride ships.”
When I first heard of the concept of bride ships, I was utterly horrified and fascinated by the idea that women would actually willingly leave everything they’d ever known behind and sail to a strange land in order to become a bride.
I couldn’t help but ask myself what kind of woman would do such a thing and why?
Before we can answer that question, we need to know a little bit about what was going on in England at that time. In the decades before the bride ships, thousands upon thousands of young men had left England because of a depression. By the early 1860’s, one statistic stated that there were 600,000 more women than men in England.
With the shortage of men, many young marriageable women, even among the wealthy middle class, had no chance of finding a spouse. Such women also had almost no employment opportunities since wealthy, educated women generally did not work outside the home. With so few options, many women were destined for a life of spinsterhood.
The possibility of traveling to one of England’s colonies must have held some appeal to spinsters, especially those in their mid-twenties and older, who’d already passed the ideal marriageable age.
In addition, an 1861 census of Vancouver Island and British Columbia revealed that females comprised only 11% of the total population, which meant that men out-numbered women approximately 10 to 1. With this ratio, it seemed only reasonable to begin sending England’s surplus of marriageable women to the colonies to provide wives for the many men who wanted them.
Imagine being one of those women. Imagine arriving to Victoria after months at sea to find the shore lined with hundreds of men waiting and cheering and eager to pick a bride. And imagine walking through the crowds of men, knowing you’re expected to choose a husband from among the hordes.
How would you feel? Overwhelmed? Frightened? Excited? I know I’d feel all of that and more!
I invite you to read about the experience through the eyes of one bride, Arabella Lawrence, the heroine of A RUNAWAY BRIDE. I invite you to join her as she arrives in Victoria and begins the process of trying to pick her husband from among the many men vying for her attention. Although Arabella is fictional, her account mirrors those of real women aboard the bride ships.
If you haven’t yet read the first book in the series, A RELUCTANT BRIDE, don’t worry. THE RUNAWAY BRIDE can be read by itself as a standalone (although I do encourage you to read the first book as well for the perspective of one of the poor working class women aboard the bride ships).
To find out more information on THE RUNAWAY BRIDE, visit my website here: http://jodyhedlund.com/books/the-runaway-bride/
