ife did I live as free as now...27 She was much happier living outside the boundaries of Victorian society that confined her until that time. She goes unjudged in her adopted home for leaving her husband. California life suits me, there is not a day I do not receive kind words and wishes of friends which are so unlike what I will meet at home...28 , writes Megquier. Abby Mansur, another pioneer from New England, wrote to her family about an unusual domestic situation, ...this is a first rate country for they say Mrs. French is in san Francisco and has been ever since she left French... she is living with a man that is married and has a wife and 4 children at home that is the way the men do here she was stopping first with one man and then with another when she first left French but when she got in a family way she had to stop it and since she had her baby she has been living with this man29 Even today, this situation would be considered scandalous; yet, Ms. Mansur calls California a first rate country. For Mansur and Megquier, marital freedom was not a negative thing once they became accustomed to the idea. Divorce rates were very high in gold rush California. Nancy Taniguchi presents a surprising picture of the frequency of divorce at that time....certain values were transformed under female direction, as befitted the keepers of the moral flame. Marriage itself became more fleeting, as women, much more often than men, sought to change partners to increase financial well-being or to unload a vicious spouse. In part, California law allowed easier divorces, and women were not reticent about taking advantage of this opportunity... the overwhelming majority of divorce cases were instigated by wives, and San Mateo and Santa Clara counties led the nation in divorces from 1850 to 1890.30 The most striking thing in the writings of gold rush women, is how they grew to love California. Many of them came to treasure the freedom the...
