18thVirginia
Major
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2012
In another thread recently we examined the changing roles of young, elite Southern women as they moved from being Southern Belles to Confederate Women. Author Stephanie McCurry in her study for her book CONFEDERATE RECKONING: Power and Politics in the Civil War South, offers a discussion of how the Yeoman farm wife moved from no role in the political world whatsoever, to one where she became a potent political force that governors and presidents had to contend with.
Stephanie McCurry. Confederate Reckoning (Kindle Locations 52-53). Kindle Edition.
In this thread, we'll take a look at these women, how they changed through the course of the Civil War, and what lengths they would go to, like bread riots, to assert themselves and their newfound political power.
My Only Support, LoC
White women, although citizens, were not a population that figured in anybody's body's political calculations. Women had never been of much interest to state officials. As a matter of law and custom they were regarded, like Antigone, tigone, as outside politics and war, members of the household, under the governance of husbands and fathers. But war had barely begun when officials cials on both sides were thrown into a series of confrontations with women engaged in what could only be called political acts, forcing fundamental mental recalculations about loyalty, treason, and political clout.
Stephanie McCurry. Confederate Reckoning (Kindle Locations 41-44). Kindle Edition.
McCurry explains that the wives both of poor farmers and somewhat more prosperous Yeoman farmers came to see themselves as Soldiers Wives and to demand that the state live up to the promises made by governors, local officials and planters to protect them and provide for them when their support, their husbands, were taken away to fight in the War. As McCurry puts it, "Any state that took their men would ultimately have to answer to them."Stephanie McCurry. Confederate Reckoning (Kindle Locations 41-44). Kindle Edition.
Stephanie McCurry. Confederate Reckoning (Kindle Locations 52-53). Kindle Edition.
In this thread, we'll take a look at these women, how they changed through the course of the Civil War, and what lengths they would go to, like bread riots, to assert themselves and their newfound political power.
My Only Support, LoC