Born in 1735, Elizabeth Marsh was one individual where history was unavoidable in every day of her life. She was born in Jamaica, a small island but yet, an important mechanism to the growing Empire. Many years later, author Linda Colley explored Elizabeth Marsh's life while researching for her book, Captives. Elizabeth Marsh is an unusual figure to study; she was not wealthy or known for her successes although she did travel immensely, "visiting and exploring settlements, towns and temples".1 From this came Linda Colley's writings of The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh. From this point forward, Elizabeth Marsh was not only looked upon as a woman in world history but also as an important figure in the means of social history.
Over the course of many years, the evolution of social history has become more apparent and focused on in society. From the beginning of the 1960s, social history was known to be a dominant tradition of political history.2 As social history began to evolve, it became more democratic, involving ordinary people such as men, women and children. Although, it included the means of both men and women, it was still more focused on the dominating gender of that time – men.3 Most histories before the 1960s only speak about powerful white men, without much detail. However, for the past few decades, the course of social history has begun to evolve immensely. Describing social history as a dominant tradition of political history did not seem to be the right way any longer. It became a history that was defined as "an attempt to relate the social experience of the lived past to the social structures that limit [as well as] define such experiences." 4 Social history is always occurring and is always changing, even in contemporary society. .
It can also be understood that social history is a history that is concerned with the categories of gender, race and migration.