This is an auction for VOYAGES OF HOPE: THE SAGA OF THE CANADIAN BRIDE-SHIPS by Peter Johnson.

Amazon.com reviews:

"A line of nervous young women got off a ship in Victoria Harbour in 1862 and had to walk the gauntlet between two rows of jostling, eager men. One girl, proposed to on the spot, accepted equally quickly and left town with her new husband. Why did these women leave everything behind in England and come to the west coast? The answers lie in the lusty turmoil of a gold-rush frontier, the horrible disruptions of industrial England and the conflicting aims of earnest Christians and early British feminists."

"Johnson has written an erudite and well-researched book-length treatment - the first - of the four bride ships that sailed from England to Victoria, the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, in the middle of the 19th century. He deals with the politics of the era at length because they dominated the culture in ways they no longer can. No woman born since WWII would stand for being treated as these women were, confined aboard ship and not allowed off at any of the stops until a few days after they anchored in James Bay... and then they were led off to virtual imprisonment in a former Marine barracks which is still standing in Esquimalt (though at the time they were close to the Parliament Building). It's a good look inside the arrogant mind of 19th century religious leaders as well as the doctrinaire feminists of the day. The class consciousness is a little overwhelming at first, although it serves to show just how British British Columbia was. By the 1960s B.C. was still over 60% British ancestry. This is a good historical account."

More very favourable reviews on Amazon.com.

Paperback 2002.

227 pages.

A previous owner's name. Otherwise, very good condition.

The cost of shipping is $4.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.