Mail Order Marriages
Were mail-order marriages about love or escape?
4.5 (19)
46 mins
Explore how mail order marriages began as a solution for love and companionship across distances, from the American West to Asian “picture brides” and World War II war brides. Discover how the practice expanded globally, including Soviet mail order brides after the USSR collapsed. Learn why modern laws have been tightened to prevent exploitation, fraud, and abuse in these arrangements.
Ep 1:
Brides of Empire: Royals to Railroads
From Louis XIV's Daughters of the King to Gold Rush newspaper ads, discover how empires and lonely frontiersmen turned matrimony into a tool for building new worlds.
Ep 2:
Across the Pacific, Across the Battlefield
Photographs, proxy weddings, and wartime romance collide as picture brides cross the Pacific and thousands of servicemen bring home wives from a world torn apart by conflict.
Discussions (11)
Heath
Level 4 · 9 mo agoChecked the books... 150lbs of tobacco was the going rate.
Nico
Level 7 · 9 mo agoIt was about colonial survival, not romance.
Sebastian
Level 8 · 8 mo agoAccurate estimate on the Filles du Roi. Roughly 800 women arrived between 1663 and 1673 per records.
