Frontier settlement extinguished childhood by forcing early independence

Evidence

One of the most painful things in the Western States and Territories is the extinction of childhood. I have never seen any children, only debased imitations of men and women, cankered by greed and selfishness, and asserting and gaining complete independence of their parents at ten years old. The atmosphere in which they are brought up is one of greed, godlessness, and frequently of profanity. Consequently these sweet things seem like flowers in a desert. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 189

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to A Midwife’s Tale’s hardscrabble frontier domesticity and the general ‘extinction of childhood’ theme the reader tracks across settlement accounts.
• SEED: Could pair with The Namesake or generational-gap discussions: how frontier hardship compressed childhood into adult labor, versus immigrant childhood likewise telescoped.

Related

• Frontier children grow up prematurely hardened into self-reliant adults (similarity 0.93)