Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust chronicles the transition of women’s roles and attitudes in the South during the Civil War. The work of Faust does not only deal with the roles of women but also the changing attitudes of men in relation to the status of women in the South. The war itself was integral in the transformation of women and would bring about these changes for the better but would be painful for many who were raised in the subservient culture of southern society. With attitudes and the environment of a world without men, women were forced to change as were the patriarchs of the society who were no longer able to cling to outdated gender roles. Faust points out the changes in the po0litical landscape as changes were made that were integral to the war effort and the altering of the roles of women, “I hope to show in this book that not only did leaders of Confederate opinion and government talk about the proper place of white women in in both the new nation and the war to secure independence; they executed plans and passed legislation that had direct effects on women’s lives.” These changes would prove unavoidable to the South as those who would support the war effort would be required to adapt to roles that were alien to them.
Faust in her writing was able to delve into numerous primary sources to view the culture prior to war and its transition by necessity during the conflict and how these changes would alter the mindset of those who would live through it. By focusing her attention on women she is able to point out how they thought and the obstacles that many would go up against in a swiftly changing world. Unable to hold on to antiquated ideas...
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... the ability to understand women in the south as well as the culture and the mindset of its inhabitants. Faust is able to look at a group that had been relatively ignored or misunderstood and let us view them in the context of their own time. The author is able to detail the incredible growth of the south in regard to the expansion of women’s roles and the acceptance of these changes by a large segment of the population. These changes in the lives of women are discussed in depth by Faust and she is able to portray her subjects in an open and accepting way, these women are creatures of their time and Faust is able to look at them through the moral prism of the period.
Works Cited
Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill and London), 13.
The book begins by explaining the roles that women in this time were known to have as this helps the reader get a background understanding of a woman’s life pre-war. This is done because later in the book women begin to break the standards that they are expected to have. It shows just how determined and motivated these revolutionary women and mothers were for independence. First and foremost, many people believed that a “woman’s truth was that God had created her to be a helpmate to a man” (p.4). Women focused on the domain of their households and families, and left the intellectual issues of the time and education to the men. Legally, women had almost no rights. Oppressed by law and tradition, women were restricted their choice of professions regardless of their identity or economic status. As a result, many women were left with few choices and were cornered into marriage or spinsterhood, which also had its limitations. As a spinster, you were deemed as unmarried who was past the usual age of marriage. Patronized by society, these women were left and stamped as “rejected”. On the other side, If the woman became married, all that she owned belonged to her husband, even her own existence. In exchange to her commitment, if a woman’s husband was away serving in the military or if she became a widower, she could use but not own, one-third of her husband’s property. This left her to manage the land and serve as a surrogate laborer in her husband’s absence. Needless to say, a day in a woman’s life then was filled with a full day of multi-tasking and as circumstances changed, more women had to adapt to their urban
To begin with, there are many events in United States history that have shaped our general understanding of women’s involvement in economics, politics, the debates of gender and sexuality, and so forth. Women for many centuries have not been seen as a significant part of history, however under thorough analyzation of certain events, there are many women and woman-based events responsible for the progressiveness we experience in our daily lives as men, women, children, and individuals altogether. Many of these events aid people today to reflect on the treatment of current individuals today and to raise awareness to significant issues that were not resolved or acknowledged in the past.
*Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. "African American Women's History and the Metalanguage of Race" in Feminism and History, ed. Joan Wallach Scott (NY: Oxford University Press, 1996), 201.
Anna Julia Cooper’s, Womanhood a Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress, an excerpt from A Voice from the South, discusses the state of race and gender in America with an emphasis on African American women of the south. She contributes a number of things to the destitute state African American woman became accustom to and believe education and elevation of the black woman would change not only the state of the African American community but the nation as well. Cooper’s analysis is based around three concepts, the merging of the Barbaric with Christianity, the Feudal system, and the regeneration of the black woman.
30 Apr. 2017. https://ctlsites.uga.edu/hist2111-wolf2015/2015/11/30/the-changing-role-of-southern-women-during-the-civil-war/ Wright, Contributed By Catherine M. Women during the Civil War. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2017. "
In the book Women in the Civil War, by Mary Massey, the author tells about how American women had an impact on the Civil War. She mentioned quite a few famous and well-known women such as, Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton, who were nurses, and Pauline Cushman and Belle Boyd, who were spies. She also mentioned black abolitionists, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, feminist Susan B. Anthony, and many more women. Massey talks about how the concept of women changed as a result of the war. She informed the readers about the many accomplishments made by those women. Because of the war, women were able to achieve things, which caused for them to be viewed differently in the end as a result.
The tragic play, Faust, and the epic poem, Inferno, are both stories that incorporate love, death, and sin, as well as a strikingly similar portrayal of women. Goethe’s Gretchen and Dante’s Francesca are both greatly affected by their love during their lives and suffer a similar fate for the sake of that love. Gretchen and Francesca, respectively, exemplify the larger themes of discontent and strife in Goethe’s Faust and of justice in Dante’s Inferno. However, while they reflect these complex themes of the literary works they appear in, their femininity is portrayed as pitiful and naïve.
Women had a role in the forming of our country that many historians overlook. In the years leading to the revolution and after women were political activists. During the war, women took care of the home front. Some poor women followed the army and assisted to the troops. They acted as cooks, laundresses and nurses. There were even soldiers and spies that were women. After the revolution, women advocated for higher education. In the early 1800’s women aided in the increase of factories, and the changing of American society. Women in America were an important and active part of achieving independence and the framing of American life over the years.
Women in the Confederacy had a great impact on the Civil War. They were thrown into totally different lifestyles--ones that did not include men taking care of the land and other businesses. Women had more control of their lives than ever before. Some took it upon themselves to get involved directly with the war while others just kept the home fires burning. Whatever roles they played, women contributed a multitude of skills to the Civil War effort.
In “Disorderly Women: Gender and Labor Militancy in the Appalachian South,” Jacquelyn Hall explains that future generations would need to grapple with the expenses of commercialization and to expound a dream that grasped financial equity and group unanimity and also women’s freedom. I determined the reasons for ladies ' insubordination neither reclassified sexual orientation parts nor overcame financial reliance. I recollected why their craving for the trappings of advancement could obscure into a self-constraining consumerism. I estimated how a belief system of sentiment could end in sexual peril or a wedded lady 's troublesome twofold day. None of that, in any case, should cloud a generation’s legacy. I understand requirements for a standard of female open work, another style of sexual expressiveness, the section of ladies into open space and political battles beforehand cornered by men all these pushed against conventional limitations even as they made new susceptibilities.
When the American Civil War began on April 12th, 1861, over 3 million Union and Confederate soldiers prepared for battle. Men from all over America were called upon to support their side in the confrontation. While their battles are well documented and historically analyzed for over a hundred years, there is one aspect, one dark spot missing in the picture: the role of women in the American Civil War. From staying at home to take care of the children to disguising themselves as men to fight on the battlefield, women contributed in many ways to the war effort on both sides. Though very few women are recognized for their vital contributions, even fewer are
2]“Never before have women had such power to be on a battlefield. Persons’ along with Clara Barton influenced the beginning of a medical revolution. In a society where women didn’t have the same opportunities as men. Although, some may believe that the civil war was a second revolution, others may also believe that the civil war was indeed the first modern war. For the first time, technology has transformed warfare.
Analyzing the narrative of Harriet Jacobs through the lens of The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du bois provides an insight into two periods of 19th century American history--the peak of slavery in the South and Reconstruction--and how the former influenced the attitudes present in the latter. The Reconstruction period features Negro men and women desperately trying to distance themselves from a past of brutal hardships that tainted their souls and livelihoods. W.E.B. Du bois addresses the black man 's hesitating, powerless, and self-deprecating nature and the narrative of Harriet Jacobs demonstrates that the institution of slavery was instrumental in fostering this attitude.
"Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women." Why was slavery "far more terrible for women"? In Harriet A. Jacobs’s memoir, she shows people the additional horrors and brutalities that an enslaved men went through, but enslaved women were often used as “breeders”. The enslaved women went through further horrors than men, they had to bore pain and degradation.
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)