Women During The Civil War

1280 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Womenhood during civil war and their role

Women During the Civil War " ‘I want something to do…' ‘Write a book,' Qouth the author of my being. ‘Don't know enough, sir. First live, then write.' ‘Try teaching again,' suggested my mother. ‘No thank you, ma'am, ten years of that is enough.' ‘Take a husband like my Darby, and fulfill your mission,' said sister Joan. ‘Can't afford expensive luxuries, Mrs. Coobiddy.' ‘Go nurse the soldiers,' said my young brother, Tom. ‘I will!' (Harper 14)." This is a dialog of Louisa May Alcott with her relatives. Miss Alcott, like many other African American women, helped serve in the Civil War. During the Civil War, Miss Alcott held a variety of jobs. Mainly working as a writer, she held positions as a nurse, teacher, and volunteered in Soldiers' Aid Societies (Harper 14). These were just a sample of jobs that African American women occupied during the Civil War. African American women, free or enslaved, found the Civil War to be a chance for them to break out of bondage. It was a point in their lives where they had a chance to find freedom. Although they knew they wouldn't be able to directly influence this chance, they did have an opportunity to make an impact. While their husbands, fathers, or male relatives were out fighting the war, African American women had to find a way to support their families. African American women worked as nurses, domestic servants, laundresses, cooks, seamstresses, and operated boarding houses. They also managed to continue the education of young people by being teachers, volunteered at churches, and created literary and moral improvement societies. The most common job of African American women during the Civil War was nursing. African American women were usually the backbone of hospital staffs.... ... middle of paper ... ...ves, and many families ended up starving. Many of these women were forced to make their own clothes and shoes. It would be the only way they could clothe their children. Women that did have jobs, found themselves wearing formal attire to work because their street clothes were so ragged and worn. It was also a woman's role to teach her children. Women not in the war had to take on many responsibilities. Another role they had to endure was being a nurse. A major disadvantage of living on a farm in the South was that your home would become a battlefield. With warfare taking place on the home front, women were invaded with wounded soldiers in their homes and forced to take care of them (Massey 197-219). Even the women that weren't working in the battlefields, still endured pain and suffering, and sacrificed themselves for the betterment of their families and country.

Show More
Related

  • Domination and Resistance: The Politics of Wage Household Labor by Tera Hunter

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...African-American women domestic workers in Atlanta during the periods between Reconstruction and World War 1 demonstrate they were active participates in the economic, social and political life of the New South. In addition, the private and public spheres accorded to white woman was non-existent for African-American women. Hunter concludes that the strategies employed by the washerwoman’s strike are inconclusive at best and evidence is lacking whether their demands for wage increases ever materialized. She does note however, that washerwoman did maintain the appearance of independence not enjoyed by most workers.

    Read More

  • Antebellum Case Study

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    It was the women’s who was charged with keeping the home in order. The destiny of a black women during the slave era were to absurdly be pushed to give offspring by a random slave men so he can ultimately be sold or be used in the plantation. Her societal purpose was to cook, sew, wash, clean the house, breastfeed her kids as well as breastfeeding her master’s offspring. Customarily black women were given domestic or demeaning work to show their inferiority within society if we look at the pyramid of different classes of people in that era. Black women represented a mother figure to attend to the needs of black men and children in her community. She was not compensated for the work she had performed. She was very much indispensable to the survival of her community. The black women experience to share the sweat and tears of her race in the antebellum era and the revolutionary period played a big role in her survival, and her humanity. Hers and others survival through that difficult antebellum time has led them to their contribution of the revolutionary period, and ultimately gave birth to freedom from

    Read More

  • Leith Mullings' On Our Own Terms: Race, Class, And Gender In The Lives Of African American Women

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of Mullings findings in her book is the fact that African American Women as a whole have always worked, unlike a lot of their white counter parts. Mullings gives a lot of examples of why this phenomenon exists. For example, she tells us that during reconstruction if a African American Women did not work she was taxed or forced to pay more rent, it has always it seems been a matter of forced labour in one way or another.

    Read More

  • Women In The Civil War Research Paper

    1788 Words  | 4 Pages

    Women in the Civil War and how they contributed to the war effort Women played an important role throughout American history. They were known in the Civil War to be doing various acts. Women had enlisted in the army as soldiers, spied and gathered information about the enemy, took care of wounded soldiers, traveled and helped within the military camps and even took over their husbands’ businesses. There were many things that they did to contribute to the war just as much as the men did. Even though it was dangerous they still helped whether it was on the battlefield, in a hospital, or at home, they still tried to help out the best they could.

    Read More

  • Essay On Women In The Civil War

    931 Words  | 2 Pages

    They were considered no use to the society, because they were labeled as being weak. They wanted to be privileged with the same roles as the men did, such as fighting in a battle. The Civil War gave the women an opportunity to do something about their wants. They took action by disguising themselves as men, so they would be able to attend the war. The woman began to take part in other battles that occurred as well. Many of them were able to get away with the scam for a while, until they ended up dead or injured. Those who did not want to join forces and fight still managed to participate in the war in several other ways, like supplying them with things they needed. They decided to take control over things such as teaching jobs, industries, slaves, and family farms and businesses. Women from the North and the South volunteered as nurses during the

    Read More

  • Was World War II A Turning Point For African Americans?

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kimble, Lionel, Jr. "I Too Serve America: African American Women War Workers in Chicago." Lib.niu.edu. Northern Illinois University, n.d. Web.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Domesticity In The 1950's

    1482 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the war, women played a vital role in the workforce because all of the men had to go fight overseas and left their jobs. This forced women to work in factories and volunteer for war time measures.

    Read More

  • Impact of US involvement in World War I

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

         Of the 260,000 African Americans that went to war, 50,000 were sent to France. These 50,000 were also given low-ranking jobs, such as laborers, mealtime aides, and stevedores. These jobs that were distributed among the blacks, benefited the war effort in a great amount. They would work sometimes in twenty-four-hour shifts unloading ample amounts of supplies from America with impressive productivity. These accomplishments by the blacks, again, aided in the war effort.      Women, like the blacks, contributed a great amount to aid in the war.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Women Who Went To The Field

    1390 Words  | 3 Pages

    Clara Barton’s ‘The Women Who Went to the Field’ describes the work of women and the contribution they made on the civil war battlefield in 1861. Barton highlights the fact that when the American Civil War broke out women turned their attention to the conflict and played a key role throughout as nurses. Therefore, at first glance this poem could in fact be seen as a commemoration of the women who served in the American Civil War as its publications in newspapers and magazines in 1892 ensured that all Civil War veterans were honoured and remembered, including the women. However, when reading this poem from a feminist perspective it can be seen instead as a statement on the changing roles of women; gender roles became malleable as women had the

    Read More

  • The Reconstruction Period Of The Civil War

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ocuments and quotes about people’s feelings during this time and because of that they don’t often get considered. Even today it is hard for us to imagine these women being real people with families and busy lives. These women were working around the clock in other people’s houses. Many of them mentioned that they didn’t have set hours. People in the house would call for them during all hours of the day and they never had time for themselves. One women shared just this in her interview when she said, “I had a good room and everything nice, and she gave me a great many things, but I’d have spared them all if only I have had a little time to myself.” Life was extremely difficult for these women even though they weren 't doing strenuous labor. They were forced into the lives of other families with unpredictable hours while still trying to maintain a life of their own.

    Read More

  • Women In World War I

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    When all the men were across the ocean fighting a war for world peace, the home front soon found itself in a shortage for workers. Before the war, women mostly depended on men for financial support. But with so many gone to battle, women had to go to work to support themselves. With patriotic spirit, women one by one stepped up to do a man's work with little pay, respect or recognition. Labor shortages provided a variety of jobs for women, who became street car conductors, railroad workers, and shipbuilders. Some women took over the farms, monitoring the crops and harvesting and taking care of livestock. Women, who had young children with nobody to help them, did what they could do to help too. They made such things for the soldiers overseas, such as flannel shirts, socks and scarves.

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in the American Civil War

    1951 Words  | 4 Pages

    The women during the war felt an obligation to assist in one form or another. Many stayed at home to watch over the children, while others felt a more direct or indirect approach was necessary. Amongst the most common path women took to support the war, many "served as clerks.filled the ammunition cartridges and artillery shells with powder at armories, laboring at this dangerous and exacting task for low wages. Both sides utilized women in these capacities (Vol. 170). " Women that stayed away from battlefields supported their respected armies by taking the jobs that men left behind.

    Read More

  • How Did Women Serve In The Civil War

    304 Words  | 1 Pages

    During the Civil War in 1861, thousands of American men sacrifice their lives to fight for their side of the north or the south. Women’s lives have also been affecting in the civil war in many positive ways. Even though, they were unable to serve in the army they began to disguise themselves as men to serve for their side of the U.S. Women were not allowed to serve in the Civil War, because their jobs were known as weren’t allowed to fight in the civil war because their job was to be a stay at home wife. While their husbands, brothers, fathers and family members went to serve in the war. Second aside from working as disguised soldier’s,

    Read More

  • Women in World War One

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women were not only separated by class, but also by their gender. No woman was equal to a man and didn’t matter how rich or poor they were. They were not equal to men. Women couldn’t vote own business or property and were not allowed to have custody of their children unless they had permission from their husband first. Women’s roles changed instantly because of the war. They had to pick up all the jobs that the men had no choice but to leave behind. They were expected to work and take care of their homes and children as well. Working outside the home was a challenge for these women even though the women probably appreciated being able to provide for their families. “They faced shortages of basic goods, lack of childcare and medical care, little training, and resistance from men who felt they should stay home.” (p 434)

    Read More

  • Little Women

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    When Louisa May Alcott turned seventeen, she was such a beautiful woman, who was tall and charming. She had great blue eyes and brown hair. However, she would never get married because she thought that a woman could take care of herself without a man’s supports (Delamar 34). Because of her difficult life, she began to work at an early age. She worked as a governess, a seamstress, and a teacher. When she was fifteen, she taught some of her younger playmates. During her teaching and...

    Read More

More about Women During The Civil War

Open Document