Exploring the Role of Women in the North American Fur Trade

This essay explores the significant role of women in the North American fur trade, highlighting their contributions which have often been overlooked in historical accounts. It examines the involvement of First Nations women in both land-based and maritime trade along the Northwest coast, emphasizing their essential labor, knowledge of the land, and roles as cultural mediators between European traders and indigenous communities. The essay also discusses the involvement of European women, who accompanied their husbands and contributed managerial skills. Through an annotated bibliography and synthesis of various sources, including primary accounts and scholarly articles, the essay argues that women played an integral part in the fur trade, shaping the economic, social, and cultural landscape of early Canada and North America, thus the fur trade had an important role in the formation of Canada.

Running head: WOMEN IN FUR TRADE
WOMEN IN FUR TRADE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note:

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Research Question
What role did First Nations women play in fur trade both in land based and maritime
trade along the Northwest coast.
Thesis Statement
The thesis statement for this essay is “Women played an integral part in the North
American fur trade from the very beginning of the activity, however the role of women has
not been acknowledged in the history of far trade in the way it should have been.”
Annotated Bibliography
Website
Canadahistoryproject.ca. "Canada A Country By Consent: New France: Fur Trade 1500S-
1700S". Canadahistoryproject.Ca. http://www.canadahistoryproject.ca/1663/1663-05-fur-
trade.html, (2018).
In this article it is stated how fur trade was one of the primary commercial activities
throughout the world in the 17th to mid-19th Century. The trade began as the need of fur products
were increasing in Canada and the beaver fur was in high demand for its quality and durability.
Thus developed a trade relationship between the North Americans and the Europeans, which
even moved beyond just only trade. “the intensely competitive trade opened the continent to
exploration and settlement, financed missionary work, established social, economic and colonial
relationships between Europeans and Indigenous people, and played a formative role in the

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creation of Canada.1” Thus the fur trade had an important role in the formation of Canada. The
women had been the essential part of the labor strength.
Book
Mackenzie, Alexander. Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Laurence, Through the
Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans; in the Years 1789 and 1793:
With a Preliminary Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Fur Trade of that
Country.: Illustrated with Maps. T. Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies... Cobbett and Morgan... and
W. Creech, at Edinburgh, (1801).
This work is exemplary in terms getting a firsthand experience about what it was to
participate in the fur trade across the continents through the oceans. The oceans were cold and
the voyage was not a very easy one. The author gives detailed account of the nature of fur trade
and how it was carried out across the coast in his books. Women took several important roles in
the whole system. “Native women acted as essential producers in the fur trade of the Canadian
and American Plains.”2 The production had been mainly dependent on the women labor. The
women also played important role in the ships which carried out the whole business.
Article
Sleeper-Smith, Susan. "Women, kin, and Catholicism: new perspectives on the fur
trade." Ethnohistory 47, no. 2 (2000): 423-452.
1 Canadahistoryproject.ca. "Canada A Country By Consent: New France: Fur Trade 1500S-1700S".
Canadahistoryproject.Ca. http://www.canadahistoryproject.ca/1663/1663-05-fur-trade.html.
2 Mackenzie, Alexander. Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Laurence, Through the Continent of North
America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans; in the Years 1789 and 1793: With a Preliminary Account of the Rise,
Progress, and Present State of the Fur Trade of that Country.: Illustrated with Maps. T. Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies...
Cobbett and Morgan... and W. Creech, at Edinburgh, 1801, (2018).

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“This article focuses on four Native women who were Christian converts and married
French fur traders.”3 Therefore, there was a role of religion and politics in the fur trade scenario
as well. The foreign invaders were coming and not only colonializing America but also
converting the women and marrying them. The wives of the French fur traders took important
role in the trading activities. The indigenous communities were changed forever by the
introduction of trade and religious conversion.
Article
Van Kirk, Sylvia. "The role of native women in the fur trade society of western Canada,
1670-1830." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies (1984): 9-13.
“In essence the history of the early Canadian West is the history of fur trade.”4 The author
has stated fur trade was the most important factor in structuring the narrative of what are the four
western provinces of Canada today. There was less violence in the western Canada in the
struggle of the colonials and the natives, this is because the both communities had to depend on
each other for managing the fur trade. The women who were native Indians, were married to the
French colonialists. This created a relationship that was beyond just trading activities. The
women hence were a factor who bridged the gap between the colonial foreigners and the native
Indians. Possibly the greatest significant native job achieved by the females at the fur trade
stakes was to deliver the men with a stable resource of Indian shoes or moccasins.
Book
3 Sleeper-Smith, Susan. "Women, kin, and Catholicism: new perspectives on the fur trade." Ethnohistory 47, no. 2
(2000): 423-452.
4 Van Kirk, Sylvia. "The role of native women in the fur trade society of western Canada, 1670-1830." Frontiers: A
Journal of Women Studies (1984): 9-13.

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Van Kirk, Sylvia. Many tender ties: women in fur-trade society, 1670-1870. University of
Oklahoma Press, (1983).
The author has contemplated upon the role of the Indian, White, and mixed blood women
played in the development of the fur trade and thus gained valuable insights upon the human
dimension and its changes affected by the fur trade. The fur trade was carried out both in the land
routes and the sea routes, however the sea route of the trade was more established. The women
had been in many areas decision makers about the fur trade activities. The authors have
explained that the primary way in which information about the role of women in fur trade can be
derived are from trader’s journals, letters and wills.
Article
White, Bruce M. "The woman who married a beaver: trade patterns and gender roles in
the Ojibwa fur trade." Ethnohistory (1999): 109-147.
“Many descriptions of the fur trade suggest that it consisted
of fur-merchandise exchanges between European men and native men, with women playing
a largely subsidiary role.”5 The title of the article has a humorous way of describing how the
women of the North American continent had been engrossed in the fur trade activity that they
were married to the beavers. The article describes the pattern of life of the indigenous Indian
women had before the coming of the Europeans and the contemporary life when the Europeans
started pouring into America, started religious conversions and engaging the native people into
the trading activities. The women were used as cheap labor pool, and they were utilized to work
manually in extracting the fur, and processing those.
5 White, Bruce M. "The woman who married a beaver: trade patterns and gender roles in the Ojibwa fur trade."
Ethnohistory (1999): 109-147.

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Primary Source:
Wisconsinhistory.org. "Letter Charlevoix, Pierre François Xavier De [On His 1721 Visit To
Wisconsin] | Turning Points In Wisconsin History | Wisconsin Historical
Society". Wisconsinhistory.Org.
https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=17, (2018).
“A French priest writes home in 1721 about Indians, beavers, and fur.”
“This is one of many letters that Charlevoix wrote to a correspondent at Paris to try to convey
what the New World was like. He was refined and well-educated, and his letters are marked by
charm, grace and humor. He went on to write a multi-volume history of New France based on
interviews with traders and priests and on unpublished records, which remains one of our best
historical sources on early Wisconsin.”6
This particular letter gives us clear insights about the activities going on in the North
American scenario and describes the native people’s role in the fur trade, and description of the
fur trade. The women were used as laborers and the steps of fur processing included peeling,
tanning, cleaning and sorting all of which were labor intensive jobs that required lots of patience.
The letter has a lots of details about the fur industry and about various processes it included. The
letter talks in details about the North American Indians and Aboriginals, these people were
mostly used for the purpose of the trading activities. The women of Aboriginal origin were the
connection between the old systems with the new systems that were to be introduced. The
women also provided the necessary knowledge about the land, and the directed the traders to the
necessary resources. Children of native tribes were sent to Eastern areas of Canada and in Europe
6 Wisconsinhistory.org. "Letter Charlevoix, Pierre François Xavier De [On His 1721 Visit To Wisconsin] | Turning
Points In Wisconsin History | Wisconsin Historical Society". Wisconsinhistory.Org, (2018).

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for education. They not only engaged in fur trade but also became the middlemen who assisted
the missionaries and the preachers to preach the teachings of the Catholicism of Roman Catholic
Church in the land.
Not only the aboriginal women but also the European women who had been
accompanying their husbands also had taken part in various trade activities. “A few French
wives may have ventured west with their trapper husbands, and some Hudson's Bay Company
officials brought their wives from Europe.” 7
Synthesis:
The above study of various literatures, articles, books, journals, and other sources have
given a clear knowledge about where were the various scenarios of trade in North America and
Europe that had allowed intercontinental and overseas trade activities, and it has also given a
clear indication about the role of women in the fur trade activities. The women played a very
important role in not only providing manual, labor but also providing necessary managerial
skills, the managerial activities were mainly performed by the wives of the European traders who
accompanied them when they visited the North American land.
In the land trade, the Indian women had been assisting the traders with their knowledge
about locations, and then providing manual labors to help the traders in processing their
products. The European women who had accompanied their husbands had helped in various
decision making processes and other managerial works required to perform the fur trade
activities across the continents nicely.
7 Wisconsinhistory.org. "Letter Charlevoix, Pierre François Xavier De [On His 1721 Visit To Wisconsin] | Turning
Points In Wisconsin History | Wisconsin Historical Society". Wisconsinhistory.Org.
https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=17, (2018)

7WOMEN IN FUR TRADE
In the land trade, the Indian women had been assisting the traders with their knowledge
about locations, and then providing manual labors to help the traders in processing their
products. The European women who had accompanied their husbands had helped in various
decision making processes and other managerial works required to perform the fur trade
activities across the continents nicely.
The fur trade in itself was a very important factor in the development of Canada as a country. It
had shaped the history of the Canadian nation, as people from the European countries who were
mainly traders were settling down in the Canadian area. The trade activity was carried out often
from Montreal and through the Pacific.

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Reference:
Canadahistoryproject.ca. "Canada A Country By Consent: New France: Fur Trade 1500S-
1700S". Canadahistoryproject.Ca. http://www.canadahistoryproject.ca/1663/1663-05-fur-
trade.html, (2018).
Mackenzie, Alexander. Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Laurence, Through the
Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans; in the Years 1789 and 1793:
With a Preliminary Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Fur Trade of that
Country.: Illustrated with Maps. T. Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies... Cobbett and Morgan... and W.
Creech, at Edinburgh, (1801).
Sleeper-Smith, Susan. "Women, kin, and Catholicism: new perspectives on the fur
trade." Ethnohistory 47, no. 2 (2000): 423-452.
Van Kirk, Sylvia. "The role of native women in the fur trade society of western Canada, 1670-
1830." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies (1984): 9-13.
Van Kirk, Sylvia. Many tender ties: women in fur-trade society, 1670-1870. University of
Oklahoma Press, (1983).
White, Bruce M. "The woman who married a beaver: trade patterns and gender roles in the
Ojibwa fur trade." Ethnohistory (1999): 109-147.
Wisconsinhistory.org. "Letter Charlevoix, Pierre François Xavier De [On His 1721 Visit To
Wisconsin] | Turning Points In Wisconsin History | Wisconsin Historical
Society". Wisconsinhistory.Org. https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?
id=17. (2018)