Editing Mail-order bride (section)

===19th and early 20th centuries===
There are at least two historical roots of the mail-order bride industry that emerged in the 1800s in the [[American frontier]]: [[Coolie#In the Americas|Asian workers]] in the frontier regions (although Asian workers were scattered throughout the world), and American men who had headed west across the United States to the frontier.

====Asian immigrants====
Asian men worked through mail-order agencies to find wives as they worked overseas in the 1800s. Key variables determining the relationship between [[Human migration|migration]] and marriage were demographics, legal policies, cultural perceptions and technology.<ref>{{citation|title=Migration for labor, migration for love: marriage and family formation across borders|journal=OAH Magazine of History|volume=14|issue=1|pages=17–21|author=S Sinke|year=1999|jstor=25163323|doi=10.1093/maghis/14.1.17}}</ref> Imbalances between the number of available women and the number of men desiring partners created a demand for immigrant women. As a result of this imbalance, a new system of "picture brides" developed in predominantly male settlements.<ref>{{citation|title=The Search for June Cleaver|author=Itta C. Englander|url=http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=itta_englander|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629194605/http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=itta_englander|archive-date=2011-06-29}}</ref> In the early 20th century, the institution of "[[picture bride]]s" developed due to immigration restrictions. The [[Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907|Japanese-American Passport Agreement of 1907]] allowed Japan to grant passports to the wives of immigrants to America.<ref name="Browne">Waldo R. Browne (ed.), "Picture Bride," in ''What's What in the Labor Movement: A Dictionary of Labor Affairs and Labor Terminology.'' New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1921; pg. 375.</ref> As immigration of unmarried Japanese women to America was effectively barred, the use of "picture brides" provided a mechanism for willing women to obtain a passport to America, while Japanese workers in America could gain a female helpmate of their own nationality.<ref name="Browne" />

====European immigrants====
[[European Americans|European American men]] sought financial success in the migration West, but few women lived there at this time, so it was hard for these men to settle down and start a family. During the [[California gold rush]] in 1849, there were at least three men for every woman, and by 1852 the ratio had increased to nearly seven men for every woman.{{r|zug|p=65}} They attempted to attract women living back East; the men wrote letters to churches and published personal advertisements in magazines and newspapers. In return, the women would write to the men and send them photographs of themselves. Courtship was conducted by letter, until a woman agreed to marry a man she had never met.<ref>Enns, C. (2005) Hearts west: the true stories of mail-order brides on the frontier. Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press.</ref> Many women wanted to escape their present way of living, gain financial security and see what life on the frontier could offer them. Most of these women were single, but some were [[widow]]s, divorcées or [[Runaway (dependent)|runaways]].<ref>Jameson, E. (1976). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3346071 Imperfect unions class and gender in cripple creek] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423173450/http://www.jstor.org/stable/3346071 |date=23 April 2016 }}. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 1(2)</ref> Mail-order marriages gave Black women an escape from the crushing racial restrictions in the South.{{r|zug|p=141}} In 1885, a group of married Black women in [[Arizona Territory]] formed the Busy Bee Club to advertise for wives for Arizona miners, hoping to reduce violence in the mining camps and encourage Black women to move to the area.{{r|beauman|p=144}}{{r|enss|pp=31–34}}

To recruit mail-order brides for [[Oregon]], area bachelors combined funds to send two brothers east. The Benton brothers began their search in [[Maryland]], posting "Brides Wanted" flyers. They held meetings at which they described the territory and promised free passage west. More than 100 women accompanied the Bentons back to Oregon.{{r|zug|pp=83–84}} [[Asa Mercer]] performed a similar recruiting role for Seattle. Only 11 women accompanied Mercer back on his first trip, but his second was more successful, with more than 100 women travelling to Seattle, accompanied by a ''[[New York Times]]'' journalist to chronicle the journey. These prospective brides were known as [[Mercer Girls]].{{r|zug|pp=89–91}}

[[British Columbia]] welcomed sixty women from Britain, mail-order brides recruited by the Columbia Emigration Society, in 1862. Another twenty women from Australia were bound for [[Victoria, British Columbia|Victoria]] but were convinced to stay in San Francisco when their ship docked there.<ref>{{cite web | website=Canada's History | title=Crinoline Cargo | date=10 January 2016 | last=Hunter | first=Terri | url=https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/women/crinoline-cargo | access-date=29 May 2021}}</ref>

In the early 20th century, answering matrimonial ads was a route to entering the United States after immigration limits became more restrictive. It was also a means of escaping war-torn regions. In 1922, two ships docked in New York with 900 mail-order brides from Eastern European countries such as Turkey, Romania, Armenia, and Greece, fleeing the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)|Greco-Turkish War]].{{r|zug|pp=174–181}}