Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

The essay “Gender and Vigilantism on the Minnesota Frontier,” by Sylvia D. Hoffert, describes how Jane Grey Swisshelm changes from a sympathetic supporter of civilizing the Native Americans of the Minnesota region, the Dakotas, to a supporter of the eradication of the Dakotas. Swisshelm was an editor of the paper, the St. Cloud Visiter, which was rare for a woman before the Civil War. Being the editor of the local paper put Swisshelm in a position of power, which she used to try to create public opinion instead of reflect it. Before moving to Minnesota, Swisshelm was an abolitionist whose idea’s of sympathy towards the weak reflects her early opinions about the Dakotas. The thesis of the essay states that Swisshelm’s change from sympathizer to eradicator is due to her inability to civilize the Dakotas herself, her misunderstanding of the Dakota culture, and the Dakota’s actions which began the US-Dakota Conflict of 1862. More reasons which contributed to Swisshelm’s change was her idea that some laws needed to be disregarded to protect the weak, her longing for the economic advancement of farmers in Minnesota and her community, St Cloud, and her participation as an abolitionist. Swisshelm’s gender was a large p