Immigrant life on the frontier

Rachel Calof wrote her autobiography not with particular intention of publishing the same but to keep a record of her life struggle and subsequent success. Probably she ever knew what historical value the memoir might carry. The community at large is thankful to her son who brought this book into light as recorded history of the immigrant Jewish struggle in northern plains during the end of 19th century.

Abraham and Rachel choose homesteading as their option for livelihood although they had the option of moving, like many Jewish immigrants did, to big cities like Philadelphia or Baltimore. Rachel and Abraham moved to North Dakota prairie, where many of Calof’s relatives settled, and claimed homestead land.

From Rachel’s story, one can get a clear insight of the immigrant life existed in the frontier. Over the next 23 years Rachel and Abraham struggled very hard to give shape to their family and this part of the story gives a vivid account of her surroundings and conditions of the then typical superstitious Jewish homestead family.

From Rachel’s story it is clear that life of the immigrant homesteaders in those days of Northern Dakota was extremely stressful due to poverty. This part of her memoir was so distressful that Rachel rarely recalls about better side of life. Most of the families used to live together in a small dirty room where seven to eight persons used to share the room.
The flooring was full of dust. As fuel, cow pie was to be used. The financial condition was so poor that it was almost impossible to get two square meals a day. Most of the immigrants did not have much knowledge about farming and hence the success was limited.

There was nothing called privacy. Rachel disliked this aspect to her core owing to her relatively modern outlook. This is one of the issues, which she decided to tackle decisively, and thereby started her protest. The book narrates how she prevailed upon the prejudices of the Calof family and earned justice to her demand.

Multiple children bearing by women were a common phenomenon. Rachel had to bear eight children in a relatively short span of time, which took heavy toll on her health. The added burden of the family caused more distress to the homesteaders.

Since the background of all those families were strictly orthodox Jewish in nature that continued for a long time in their immigrant life as well. Superstition is one aspect, which made Rachel’s life miserable. The time when she and Abraham were stretched to their extreme with struggle for survival, her mother-in-law’s superstitions exceeded all limits. In fact in one occasion for a temporary period she almost lost sanity. Fortunately with the help of her sister-in-law she recovered.

The scarcity of food throughout this tenure of struggle was so much that in one occasion Abe went to a winter foray in Devil lake leaving Rachel and her newly born baby alone for four days. He came back with "horror of horrors, pickled pigs feet" packed in a container. Rachel described this tragic incident in a very candid manner that explains the conditions they passed through at that time.

What challenges did immigrant face?

The basic challenge they faced is to fight poverty. The second challenge was the struggle to raise their multiple children. Other challenge was too keep the family united in the context of conflicts.

The unique challenges Rachel faced as woman was the challenge of adaptation in a family with many vices. Women had to persistently face the challenge of the lack of privacy. Fighting superstitious fanatics like Rachel’s mother in law was no less a challenge for women. Keeping the health fit despite numerous pregnancies was no less challenge for women.

How did these challenges differ from their neighbors?

Rachel Calof faced extra-ordinary problems in comparison to her other homestead neighbors owing to the primitive and superstitious behavior of her mother-in-law. And the additional pain in the neck was the large family in one little room with no privacy. In this respect also Rachel calof faced added problems, which many of her neighbors have not faced to that extent despite their poor financial conditions.

Would Rachel Calof’s quality of life have been better in a city? Why or why not?

Well, the answer this question could be either yes or no, since both examples are available in good numbers in contemporary history of immigrants. My personal opinion is, yes it would have been easier for Rachel Calof to succeed in a city environment given her outlook, modern ideas and perseverance. City life would have given her freedom from the forcible compliance from the religious superstitions and possibly a shade better living condition with some privacy. In city life it would have been comparatively easier to manage food and shelter where opportunity was more in comparison to what was available in the then North Dakota Plains. Moreover homesteading for immigrants was otherwise also very tough, as the records suggest, which compelled most of the homesteaders to leave the profession.

Why did Rachel marry?

Rachel grew up in a miserable and neglected condition with her grandfather after her mother died and her father immigrated to U.S. By the time she became eighteen, her future prospect was really grim and had no dowry in store. So her chances of getting married to someone of good status were nil. At that critical juncture a proposal for her marriage started brewing up, as mail order bride, with the help of a woman called Chaya who was brokering for the marriage of her immigrant brother Abraham. It was not easy task at all to get selected as a bride since Rachel had to pass many humiliating tests to prove her worthiness. By that time Rachel only knew Abraham by name and photograph. She was completely unaware of what kind of future may unfold with an unknown man staying “half the world away”.

To answer the question “Why did she marry?”, let us recollect few sentences from her memoir in her own words:
“I was ashamed of my status as a menial. I had no dowry to enable me to marry anyone of status. My future seemed hopeless.”
“ I realized that I had to take the chance of going to a stranger in a strange land. No other avenue was open to me.”
“....But finally my thoughts settled into a firm resolve that I would face up to my future and do my best to make it a good one. I made up my mind that the boy in America and I shared a common future, and that I would go to him in faith and trust....”
The answer to the question largely lies in above uttering which suggest that hopelessness, desperation and conviction forced her to take the decision. But as readers, we gradually realize that the courage she showed by taking such a bold decision derived basically from her indomitable character, which she demonstrated throughout her life.


How did culture and religion shape her expectations of marriage?

Rachel did not explicitly write her expectations from her marriage. But considering Rachel’s modern outlook, intelligence and will to live a better life one can guess that she at least expected good living condition, manageable financial status and a happy family hood with children. She came from an orthodox superstitious Jewish family whose culture was inseparable from its religion. Rachel was also not free from religious beliefs although she had more modern outlook with respect to her time and was definitely not a fanatic and too much superstitious. After marriage when she came to live with an almost similar religiously superstitious family and mother in law and her expectations of a decent married life did not take much shape at least till middle of her life. As already told, culture did play almost the same role in shaping her life in that period since it was closely linked with the religion. Other contemporary cultures did not influence very much in Rachel’s life at that time since the family was a part of an isolated Jewish homestead community. Rachel recollected her nostalgic memories of those days of hardship very vividly.
But after their successful struggle when Abraham succeeded in setting up a school and build an own house, the story took a sweeter turn. At that time Rachel Calof’s family became the mainstay of Jewish culture in Devil Lake’s Jewish farming community and two American Presidents acknowledged their contribution by accrediting. Their financial condition and family life improved. Subsequently in St Paul also the family enjoyed good social status with respect to religion and culture. At St Paul they became financially more stable and happiness started giving pleasure to their life. So it can be argued that in the later part of her life, the religion and the culture did help to fulfill her expectations of marriage to a great extent.


How did Rachel’s expectation at time conflict with the expectations of her husband and extended family?

The conflict of Rachel’s expectation with her family’s expectation does occupy a sizeable space of the book. Firstly the basic living condition she had to accept upon arrival in North Dakota was so poor that it was worse than that of Russia, where she lived till the age of eighteen, and that created the initial conflict with what the other family members expected her to accept naturally. Secondly she recalled her mother in laws fanatic superstitions and dearly errors in details, which were in direct conflict with her expectations. Privacy is one issue where her expectation was totally shattered and in direct contrary to the expectation of her other family members. She was forced to share a tiny dirty room with seven other members in a primitive condition as a new bride right from honeymoon period. There were other conflicts of Rachel expectations with that of family members but those are not worth mentioning in details in comparison to the ones cited above.

The conflict of Rachel’s expectations with the expectations of her husband Abraham fortunately did not create much dismay to Rachel’s life. There were cases of such conflicts but those were not of very serious nature so as to disturb the family peace at large. In fact it is Abraham who used to understand Rachel’s expectation in depth and always helped her to meet them as much as possible under the circumstances.

How did she resolve these conflicts?

She used her in-built qualities like perseverance, intelligence, patience and reasoning to resolve the conflicts most of the time. At times she had to accept other’s wishes to avoid family confrontations and that speaks about her sacrifices in the larger interest of the family’s well being. But with her modern outlook, she protested at many times with proper reasoning. One example is the issue of privacy on which she finally won and earned the due. There were times when she could not do much and resolved the conflict within herself by sacrificing her wishes in the interest of the family and community.
What does Rachel’s experience tell us about the importance of marriage in women’s lives?

It will be unfair to pass a generalized judgment about the importance of marriage only going by the experience of the Rachel Calof. From the perspective of today’s readers, we get mixed impression about the importance of marriage as gradually the life of Rachel unfolds in the book. The distressful part of her married life does not give enough pleasure to the present day readers, although the later part of her life, where success took over the misery to some extent, helps to pacify the horror of earlier days. All said and done the importance of the role of marriage in women’s life is undeniably established in history of civilized society. From that angle Rachel’s experience strengthens the same belief. Her experiences teach us how much sacrifice women may have to make the marriage a success. Her experience also underlines that the marriage can make a woman more matured in terms of social reforms, tolerance and self-reliance. In short going by the experiences of Rachel Calof, marriage is the most important event of woman’s life to bring ultimate success of her family life provided she struggles and applies her good qualities sincerely.



Comparison and contrast of the immigration experience of men and woman

Rachel Calof came from an orthodox East European Jewish community. To compare immigration experience of men and women in the perspective of her story, it will be helpful to know the comparative prevailing status of men and women in general used ton exist in East European Jewish community in late nineteenth century. In short it was truly male dominated society where men used to get every preference in regard to power, upbringing, education, formal religious studies, financial matters etc. Women’s role was supportive in nature within the family and outside. Although they had to share the major part of the physical activities to run the family and all hassles of child bearing etc., they never got the due respect just like other ethnic communities prevailed at that time. The situation was not very different also amongst US immigrant Jewish community till the first part of twentieth century and more so for Jewish homesteaders who used to live away from ever changing atmosphere of industrialized city life. Mass Jew migration took place basically in the pursuit of better living condition. Since women were the deprived and discriminated amongst men and women, it was quite natural for woman community to expect more benefit from the immigration in terms of social status at least. Following the natural law of sociology, these expectations of women continued to be suppressed by their dominating male counterpart and as a consequence the situation did not change rapidly. This active and passive resistances of the male community made women immigrants’ experience more struggling than the other.

Rachel Calof’s experience was little different than others. Unlike many other women, who traveled with their families together during migration, Rachel had to move all alone to get locked to a stranger in a different geographical world. As an woman, Rachel’s case was even more different. Her experience regarding the need for adopting the harsh family and financial conditions along with physical demands of multiple pregnancies presented a totally terrifying experience in comparison to experiences faced by men.

How did men’s and women’s expectations differ?

Since the women community was deprived and discriminated for a long time, their expectation was to the gain social dignity in terms of equality, education, decision-making, financial condition, formal religious rights etc. as benefits of immigration. But this did not happen very easily in orthodox Jewish community. Although eventually women’s those expectations were fulfilled to a great extent, but it took long time by overcoming the opposition of the male folks and the Jewish community especially only getting influenced by the rapidly changing American society at large.

On the other hand men’s expectation out of immigration was more directed towards more earning opportunity, easy free life, opportunity to keep their religious and cultural identity as much as possible etc. It can also be argued that men expected to maintain their dominance even after immigration but slowly they had to give in to some extent under the influence of changing society and feminine activists.

What challenges did they face together and what challenges were unique to women?

The very basic challenge they faced together is to fight the poverty. The second noteworthy point in this aspect was the struggle they had to undergo together to raise their seven kids. Other challenge they faced together was too keep the family united in the face of conflicts.

The unique challenges Rachel faced as woman firstly the challenge of adaptation in a family with many vices. Next challenge that Rachel had to confront persistently was the problem of the lack of privacy. Fighting superstitious fanatics like her mother in law was no less a challenge to Rachel as woman. It will be unfair if we do not mention that how aptly Rachel faced the challenge of keeping her health in shape despite multiple pregnancies.

How did gender affect an individual’s relationships with family and the outside community?

Rachel, being a female, had an effect on relationship with her husband’s family especially with her mother in law. The hostile behavior she experienced originating from her superstitions mother in law would have not gone to that extent if Rachel did not belong to the feminine gender. Rachel’s case was a typical example of such relationship existed in most of the orthodox families in those days.

Gender also used to affect the individual’s relationship with members of the outside community. Here men used to enjoy much better position since mainly they controlled the society during the period under review. Since women used to be discriminated in society from social prestige point of view, they never got the due respect from the members of outside community as well. However the situation started changing from the middle of twentieth century and the process is still going on.

Was it easier for men to assimilate into American Society? Why or why not?

Yes, in my opinion it was easier for men to assimilate into American society as immigrants. Successful adjustment in a society requires quick acceptance of the changed norms and cultures of the new society. Unlike many other societies, American society started to develop late in the history and its rate of change was fast paced in comparison with social change histories recorded so far. So it was essential for immigrants to keep pace with such changes leaving behind many cultural practices they were used to before immigration. Men by virtue of their nature, as we find from the sociological history of centuries, were more amenable to such social changes in comparison to their counterpart. This aspect has been proven in all societies and particularly in American society.