Frontier mining settlements were morally steady and safer than British cities.
Evidence
There is a manifest indifference to the higher obligations of the law, “judgment, mercy and faith”; but in the main the settlers are steady, there are few flagrant breaches of morals, industry is the rule, life and property are far safer than in England or Scotland, and the law of universal respect to women is still in full force. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 90
Categorization
- XREF: Reverses the common picture of lawless frontier towns; connects to later accounts of settler volatility she describes elsewhere in the journey.