(Northern Women -
The Seneca Falls, N.Y. convention of 1848
Annual National Women's Rights Conventions from 1850 onward )
Laura Edwards - The Scarlett O'Hara Myth 2:45 minutes
"woman has but one right, the right to protection, the right to protection includes the obligation to obey. A husband, lord and master, nature designed for every woman." George Fitzhugh. Sociology for the South, or, the Failure of Free Society. 1854 (full text, 304 pages)
Before the Civil War. southern women were isolated from the political sphere (northern women were involved in various political causes, but like southern women, they could not vote or hold office). But war situations brought southern women into the political arena in several ways...
Elite (upper class) women
From the war's beginning, elite women in cities across the South formed women's associations to sew uniforms and tents for the soldiers. There were over 1,000 such organizations during the war. Women also raised money for Bibles, bandages, and other items for the soldiers' use by holding concerts and plays. Performing in plays, in particular, challenged women's old social status.
Women in cities with water access raised thousands of dollars to have boats built to protect their cities ($30,000 alone for the Palmetto State). This was a stinging rebuke of what was seen as the Confederate government's slowness in addressing the issue.
The Union occupied New Orleans on May 1, 1862. In defiance of the occupation, southern women spat on, dumped urine on, hit, and threatened to kill Union soldiers. On May 15, commanding officer Benjamin Butler ordered that any such woman would be treated as "woman of the town plying her avocation." (i.e. a prostitute). This quieted many but not all of the women (some were jailed) but brought protests from as far as London. Butler received the moniker "the beast" because of his order.
Benjamin Butler and the Women of New Orleans
Although elite southern women helped the war effort in many ways, in other ways they balked. Nursing wounded soldiers was one of these. The majority of elite women considered themselves (and were considered by many) to be too "delicate" for work in hospitals beyond conversing with or reading to soldiers. The minority of elite women who did embrace nursing often criticized the others.
Southern Women Nurses During the War
Sally Louisa Thompkins - The daughter of a wealthy Virginia merchant, at the age of 28 Thompkins established Robertson Hospital in Richmond following the First Battle of Manassas. She was commissioned as a Captain in the Confederate Army, being its only woman officer.
Kate Cumming - A Scottish immigrant from Mobil Alabama, Cumming served as a nurse in Corinth, Mississippi from 1862 until the end of the war.
Common (lower class) women
Soldiers' wives
Soldier's wives and widows organized politically to demand support from the Confederate governments and sometimes took up arms.
Petitioning the state and federal governments.
One petition from "the Regulators" in North Carolina had 522 women's signatures. These petitions often referred to their husband's fighting for the "big man's" (slaveholders) Negros and demanded the government fulfill its obligations to the soldiers' wives and children.
The food riots March - April, 1863
Atlanta, Ga. (3/16) 15 - 20 women steal bacon at gunpoint. Newspapers and politicians recognize they are soldiers' wives and daughters, start funds to feed the women of Atlanta.
Salisbury, N.C. (3/17) 40 - 50 women attack multiple merchants. The merchants attacked were known speculators. In several of the riots, the women first demanded to be sold the wares at the set government prices, but the speculators refused.
Similar riots happen in Mobile, Al., Petersburg, Va. and Macon, Ga. over the next two weeks.
Richmond, Va. (4/2) 300 women begin a riot and rob stores while holding of police at gunpoint. Governor John Letcher and Jefferson Davis come out to face the women. The women disburse when a militia is order to train guns on them. Farmer and soldier's mother Mary Jackson is arrested as the organizer of the riot, 60 people are tried and convicted.
Several more riots happen over the next two weeks.
Results: The bread riots led to increased relief from Confederate state governments and changes to federal laws about taxation and impressment. Women continued to press authorities for relief until the end of the war and smaller, less volatile riots broke out occasionally.
Women Unionists and wives of Unionists
Southern Unionist women worked against the Confederacy in a number of ways including working in clan and local groups to hide and feed draft evaders and deserters and to give information as to Confederate troops to Union commanders who reached their areas.
Southern Refugees
An estimated 200,000 white southerners (read some accounts here) were refugees during the war, either displaced by battle or southern dissidents escaping conscription or arrest. The southern portions of northern states, particularly in the mid-west was teaming with refugees. Over crowded conditions in homes, hotels, etc facilitated the spread of deadly diseases.
Southern Women Spies during the Civil War
Belle Boyd
Rose O'Neil Greenhow
Antonia Ford
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