A Tale of Two Widows: Marriage, Widowhood, and Faith on Bendigo Goldfield, 1859–1869

Abstract

This article examines how, in the context of unstable colonial circumstances and the absence of traditional support mechanisms, the religious beliefs and support of faith communities enabled two migrant women to manage changed marital circumstances and economic disaster on the Victorian goldfields. The concept of Providence provided an important rationale to understand mining failure and the untimely death of sanctioned breadwinners, and supported these women in their management of economic independence. Both women adopted tactics of mobility as a mean to reinvigorate hope, pairing faith and relocation to pursue socially mandated vocations and family livelihoods.