Unruly Women Analysis

Unruly Women: The Politics of Social and Sexual Control in the Old South by Victoria E. Bynum begins by simply questioning the reader; asking who these “unruly women” would have been in the antebellum South, and what they could have possibly done to mark them in this deviant and disorderly light. Whenever you think of Southern Women during this time a vision of lovely refined yet quieted and weak women come to mind. It’s a time where women were inferior to men in almost every aspect. Women were expected to stay at home raising children. Women were expected to remain in the house, in the private world of home and family. White men wanted control over all dependents in his household; including their wife, children, slaves, and servants. Bynum

These were women who weren’t directly under the supervision of a white male; and were thought to be a threat to the social order. Free black women regardless of their economic standing or family situations were suspect along with poor white women who either bore children out of wedlock, or had black lovers. To antebellum society motherhood is thought of as the most noble calling for southern white women, but becomes the “most appalling system of degradation when occurred outside marriage”(p.2). Interracial sexual relations are “regarded as the greatest moral outrage against [antebellum] society” (p.69) Poor women during this time often broke the norm of this times female behavior, and were the most likely to engage in an interracial social or sexual relationship. The respected white women in the community would often refer to these women as “vile”, “lewd”, and “vicious” “products of an inferior strain of humanity” (p. 90). While these relationships were seen as being unmoral, whenever a white man had a sexual relationship with a black women he had little to no fear of disapproval from society as long as the woman was still treated as a black women instead of getting the respect that was reserved for white women. Women were often harassed by court officials threatening charges of prostitution, bastardy, or fornication they then would assume the role of the patriarch and attempt to forcibly

Until recently we haven’t really known or focused on the behavior of southern women during the war. From what we know they faced food shortages, crime, and an increased death toll. These women had to drop everything they’ve known to become the head of the household. There’s little that’s known about the enslaved and poor women during this time. These women did what they could to survive during a time that was dangerous because of the war. These women became more vulnerable, where the women were victimized by the males in the war. The Confederacy begins to try to control these enslaved and poor females rather than trying to earn their support. Women began being charged with new crimes including larceny, forcible entry, and rioting. This opposition of the Confederate seems to be women’s most successful form of disorderly conduct. Bynum claims that women “significantly alter the balance of power between warring men” (p. 149). Many poor white women went to the streets. There were mobs of women in each North Carolina County. These attacks were focused on merchants and Confederate agents; who were both extremely obnoxious towards these poor women. The poor people began to fear starvation more than the law, in the months leading up to the end of the war a mob of mostly women descended upon Granville