Posted: April 24th, 2025

Civil War Discussion

Civil War

1. Discuss one type of work that women performed during and in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War and include evidence from the reading in your answer.

Reconstruction and Civil War

4. How do we make sense of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment among reform-minded women in the context of Civil War, the end of slavery, and Reconstruction? Introduce evidence from this week’s readings in your answer.

Civil War, Reconstruction, and Transformation (Reminder: signing in to the Library first
allows the links below to work best for you.)

Title Citation

Civil War (Don’t forget to sign in for easy
access)

American Women’s History: A Very Short
Introduction, Chapter 3 to p. 62 (top)

Women’s Hardship Petitions to the US
Federal Government During the Civil War
Read at least five petitions.

Video “She Ranks Me” excerpt from Ken
Burns’ Civil War (Segment 19: 4:14 mins
only)

Video Civil War Experience in Louisa May
Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women
(5:08 mins only)

Susan Ware. 2015. American Women’s History: A
Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
https://search-ebscohost-com.proxylib.csueastbay.e
du/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e091sww&AN=92107
4&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Rebecca Jo Plant, Frances M. Clarke, fl.
2023 and Cayla Regas, fl. 2023 ‘Do not toss
this letter away’: Women’s Hardship
Petitions to the U.S. Federal Government
during the Civil War(Alexandria, VA:
Alexander Street, 2023), 100 page(s),
Source: documents.alexanderstreet.com

Reconstruction

Frances Harper Reconstruction Speech Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Mrs. Frances
Ellen Harper On Reconstruction, The Liberator,
3 March 1864. In documents.alexanderstreet.com.
Accessed October 2, 2023.

How did White Women aid formerly enslaved
people during and after the Civil War?

Read at least 5 documents (aka Primary
Sources) in this collection.

Carol Faulkner. How Did White Women Aid
Former Slaves during and after the Civil War,
1863-1891? 1999 (Binghamton, NY: State
University of New York, Binghamton, 1999),
66 page(s),Source:
documents.alexanderstreet.com

Darlene Clark Hine, “An Angle of Vision:
Black Women and the United States
Constitution.”
(I tried a new way of linking. Let me know if it
doesn’t work. Sign in to the Library!)

Darlene Clark Hine,“An Angle of Vision:
Black Women and the United States
Constitution, 1787-1987,” OAH Magazine of
History 3, no. 1 (1988): 7–13.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25162573. Or
https://www-jstor-org.proxylib.csueastbay.edu
/stable/pdf/25162573

After Slavery Searching for Loved Ones in
Wanted Ads

Ari Shapiro, Maureen Pau, “After Slavery
Searching for Loved Ones in Wanted Ads,”
Code Switch, National Public Radio, February
22, 2017. Accessed October 6, 2023.

https://csu-eastbay.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/login?vid=01CALS_UHL:01CALS_UHL

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https://search-alexanderstreet-com.proxylib.csueastbay.edu/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cweb_collection%7C5470750

https://documents-alexanderstreet-com.proxylib.csueastbay.edu/c/1012073572?token=eda444c4e8cb594c6e9abeb0e7770183e6a1933a8c83b7aaa132ee941770d66d&customer=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%253D%253D

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https://documents-alexanderstreet-com.proxylib.csueastbay.edu/node/4?token=eda444c4e8cb594c6e9abeb0e7770183e6a1933a8c83b7aaa132ee941770d66d&customer=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%253D%253D

https://www-jstor-org.proxylib.csueastbay.edu/stable/pdf/25162573

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25162573

https://www-jstor-org.proxylib.csueastbay.edu/stable/pdf/25162573

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/22/516651689/after-slavery-searching-for-loved-ones-in-wanted-ads

Civil War, Reconstruction, and Transformation (Reminder: signing in to the Library first
allows the links below to work best for you.)

Intersectionality

The Intersectionality Wars (skim not so
much for the “wars” part, but to get an
understanding of intersectionality as
originally intended/applied by
scholars/attorneys.) Kimberly Crenshaw’s
foundational article is also linked in the
article. Intersectionality is an important
analytic term that is more effective and
descriptive than ‘double oppression,’ an
earlier way of understanding how race and
gender impacted Black women. Once you
have the concept, it’s important to think about
its historical applications for the purposes of
this class.

Jane Coaston, “The Intersectionality Wars,”
Vox, May 28th, 2019,
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/
18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-
race-gender-discrimination . Accessed
October 2, 2023.

https://csu-eastbay.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/login?vid=01CALS_UHL:01CALS_UHL

https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination

Women & the Civil War,
Continuity and Change

“The Sphere of a Woman,” illustration in Godey’s Lady’s Book, March 1850,
https://americainclass.org/the-cult-of-domesticity/ accessed 10/2/23

The Cult of Domesticity

I. Overview: Women at the Outset of the Civil War

A. Employment (not recorded in the Census!) Underreported
1. Social identity would tend to dominate over economic activity which was

incorporated into conceptions of women’s roles.
a. Wives, mothers, daughters contributed the labor to run a household, including

productive activities like weaving, shoemaking, candle making etc.

2. The census takers didn’t ask

Here’s a quote from the Census Population Report, 1870

“It is taken for granted that every man has an occupation… It is precisely the other
way with women and young children. The assumption is, as the fact generally is,
that they are not engaged in remunerative employment. Those who are so
engaged constitute the exception, and it follows from a plain principle of human
nature, that assistant marshals will not infrequently forget or neglect to ask the
question.”

Barry R. Chiswick, RaeAnn Halenda Robinson

IZA DP No. 13424: Women at Work in the Pre-Civil War United States: An Analysis of
Unreported Family Workers, June 2020, https://docs.iza.org/dp13424 , accessed 10/3/23

https://www.iza.org/person/75

https://docs.iza.org/dp13424

A. Employment continued
3. 11%-16% of women worked is the best count of mid 19th century until recently…This would of course in 1860 leave out enslaved
women. It would also represent an undercount of:

a. Middle class women who sewed or were shopkeepers beside husbands
b. Immigrant women and working class who took in boarders to help make ends meet (⅓-½ urban dwellers boarded or kept

boarders)
c. Free-black women who took in laundry etc
d. Single women who worked as servants
e. Farmers wives and daughters
f. Manufacturers’ wives and daughters (one reason we know they worked is that widows often carried on the business)

4 A recent economic study using microdata scoured from the 1860 census found=56% of women engaged in economic activity like
that described above! That’s similar to the 58% figure for 2018

a. This suggests that the location of women’s work changed over the last century and a half, not the fact of women’s work…
b. The largest undercounted occupation was “tailoresses” which could be done in a small family workshop

A. Employment (continued)

B. What other occupations were there?

1. Factory workers like the Lowell Mill Girls (to be discussed when we talk about
working women and unions)

2. Teachers–women increasingly filled this role (Catharine Beecher’s goal)
a. this was possible because the establishment of compulsory education increased demand for teachers

b. as women entered the field of primary education, wages went down, and men either looked to secondary schools or outside of
teaching

c. women teachers made only 60% of what male teachers were paid

d.The Civil War would diminish the availability of young men available for the role…

I. B. Education

1. By the Civil War
a. ½ American women were literate

2. They were using that education

a. ¼ of nation’s teachers female and 4/5s in Massachusetts

b. As Beecher had promised, women were “best and cheapest” in the nursery and the
school room

3. Higher education was opening to women with the supply of male
students down due to the draft and enlistment

C. Law

1 Married Women’s Property Acts

a. Mississippi passed one of the first acts but the “panic of 1837” was in part an
explanation. A wife could hold but not control property. Goal–protect family
assets from the ravages of unfettered capitalism, not empower women.

b. New York passed a stronger act, one campaigned for by Women’s
Rights activists including Elizabeth Cady Stanton

He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.

He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.

He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes of divorce, in case of separation, to whom the
guardianship of the children shall be given (Declaration of Sentiments, 1848)

C. Law

2. New York 1845–allowed women to own and control property

Property that women held at marriage
shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband, nor be liable for his debts, and shall continue her sole and separate property, as if she
were a single female.

Property gathered after marriage was hers except it might be liable for husband’s debts

Property gifted was also hers and it was NOT liable to husband’s debts

Contracts made by her as a feme sole before marriage remained contracts

(These acts made inroads into coverture)

3. As of 1860, 29 states had passed women’s property acts. (In the 1840s, Tennessee double downed on the old ways and not only refused
to pass a MWPA, based on women’s lack of ‘separate souls.’

(https://guides.loc.gov/american-women-law/state-laws#s-lib-ctab-19233885-1)

https://guides.loc.gov/american-women-law/state-laws#s-lib-ctab-19233885-1

II. Civil War Work: Women built on their Reform Experience

A. Sanitary Commissions (North) attracted Abolitionist women and others who
were pro-union even if unsure on the question of ending slavery

1. One Washington DC Sanitary Com Fair raised over $3,000,000.
2. Lincoln, 1864: “Of all that has been said by orators and poets since the

creation of the world in praise of women applied to the women of America, it
would not do them justice for their conduct during this war.”

Brooklyn Sanitary Affair at the Brooklyn Musuem, from the balcony http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/243

A. Sanitary Commissions continued

3.. An “auxiliary” women’s army for the Union that:

a. Fundraised, Nursed, and Sewed
b. Most importantly–centralized and organized women’s voluntary efforts via the

Women’s Central Association for Relief
i. Huge change–relief like enlistment had been by community–now women’s handiworks were to

be centralized. A “sisterhood of states” was established, per one branch manager

A. Sanitary Commission

4. Summary
a. public service and domestic ideals
b. proved excellent fund raisers and supply collectors—often stepping in where union did not

UNCLE SAM IS VERY RICH BUT VERY SLOW, AND IF IT WAS NOT FOR THE SANITARY, MUCH
SUFFERING WOULD ENSUE. WE GIVE THE MEN TOAST AND EGGS FOR BREAKFAST, BEEF TEA
AT 10 0 CLOCK.

c. roots of modern red cross—Clara Barton went from organizing relief supplies for northern soldiers to
founding the American branch of the red cross.

Mary Livermore was an abolitionist and temperance speaker who directed the Chicago branch: I delivered
public addresses to stimulate supplies and donations of money. Wrote letter by the thousand; made trips
to the front with sanitary stores; brought back large numbers of invalid soldiers assisted to plan organize

and conduct colossal fairs;

B. Nursing Profession

1. War brought change: Pre-War Hospitals–for the poor; Nurses: Male
a. male nurses were in short supply

2. Women who wished to help the war effort saw the need
b. built on vision of self sacrifice and service, not medical skill
c. soon training provided by the Sanitary Commissions

d. could not encroach on male turf, despite abilities
e. housekeeping in horrible hospital conditions

3. male doctors resented even this intrusion, and there was protest
a. to defend their role women emphasized the domestic angle of the job; nonetheless war

experience proved the foundation of what would become a largely female profession
after the war

4. Difficult, meaningful and arduous work that changed
lives
One nurse wrote: There are no words…to express the sufferings I witnessed today. The men lie on the
ground; their clothes have been cut off them to dress their wounds; they are half naked, having nothing
but hard-tack to eat only as Sanitary Commissons, Christian Associations give them….four surgeons were
busy all day amputating legs and arms….for five miles there is an awful smell of putrefaction (after
Gettysburgh)

a. Civil War had the result of unleashing talents and confidence of hundreds of women w/
organizational experience behind them. provided opportunities for their skills to be exercised,
improved.a demonstration of their useful citizenship

b. But the experience was not one of rejoicing: a woman who became a suffragist after the war
recalled “The work in our community…was done by despairing women whose hearts were with their
men.”

Northern Women in the South

C. “But after some days of positive, though not severe treatment, order was brought
out of chaos, and I found but little difficulty in managing and quieting the tiniest and
most restless spirits. I never before saw children so eager to learn, although I had
had several years’ experience in New-England schools. Coming to school is a
constant delight and recreation to them. They come here as other children go to
play. The older once, during the sommer, work in the fields from early morning until
eleven or twelve o’clock, and then come into school, after their hard toil in the hot
sun, as bright and as anxious to learn as ever.”

Life on the Sea Islands, Part Iwritten by Charlotte L. Forten Grimké, 1837-1914, in Atlantic Monthly, 1864, pp.
587-596, 11 page(s)

https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C2613668

Northern Women in the South

1. Abolition, School teaching, Missionary work combined to inspire women to head south
2. They brought racial hierarchy and racist ideas with them–a photograph of teacher Laura Towne with three Black children, she

captioned in a derogatory way.
3. Northern whites in the south may have hated slavery. But they were unsure about and uncomfortable with the meaning of freedom. In

other words, while they had sympathy for those harmed by the abuses of slavery, but clung to ideas of racial superiority. (A colonial
mindset.)

4. Still nurses, missionaries, teachers, and even army and federal officials’ wives faced social criticism for stepping beyond the typical
boundaries of ‘propriety’ in their role and activities in the South.

a. Constructed a self concept of ‘white mothers’ to the race (a community that had plenty of capable mothers…)
b. Some even ensconced themselves in former plantation mansions that needed to be ‘kept’ by the supervised labor of freed men and

women…and essentially re-established slavery…

I. Some white Northern women obstructed Blacks’ demands for fair wages, outrage at having to rent out plantation cabins
where they’d worked their whole lives, and saw corn and donated clothing as pay…expecting gratitude in return

Image above shows a seated white woman in the foreground with
three Black children standing behind her. Portrait of teacher Laura M. Towne, a
founder of the Penn School, with students Dick, Maria and Amoretta.

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/83d465d0-73ab-0e4a-e040-e00a18060754

III.Confederate Women–Southern women’s lives upended

A. Scale of Change (A white female Southern perspective)

1. 4/5ths men served

2. Economic turmoil & disaster

3. Former plantation mistresses sought to hold on to plantations as the
system that made them possible was ending

4. What was womanhood with men at War? What was their social status if
they performed domestic and other labor?

B. Gender in the Confederacy

1. Some of the first southern white female voluntary associations started to
respond to needs of the Confederate Army.

a. Meaningful work sewing and knitting
b. Exposure to female community beyond the individual plantation outside

of kin, for some this was a first

2. Refugees fleeing the Union Army yearned for a kind of home life that wasn’t
possible any more.

C. Poor White Southern Women

1. Uprooted, maintaining small farms while their husbands soldiered
2. Joined their male relatives in perceiving the inequities of Confederate draft

and southern system of taxation; felt they bore the brunt of the wartime
hardships.

3. Resented wealthy planter families who took refuge in their communities;
began to resent the costs of war, costs of crop confiscation etc for a war not of
their making

a. Poor women marched on city hall in New Orleans demanding money to make
ends meet (without husbands’ labor/salaries)

b. Bread riots led by poor women occurred in multiple cities in 1863

D. Enslaved and Emancipated Black Women

1. Resistance to slavery continued and was
enhanced

a. Opportunities to organize–Colored
Women’s Union Relief Association in
North Carolina

b. Information networks spread news of
the war

i.Stealing newspapers

Ii. bringing news home from
markets

2. Acts of rebellion

a. Taking Big House wood to floor a slave cabin

b. Preventing Masters from burning grain to keep troops
from getting it.

3. Individual Acts of “Abolition”

a. .Greet the Union Army by joining efforts to supply and
support it–and pass along useful information; and leave
plantation ‘homes’

i. this didn’t always result in freedom or
safety

ii. sent back to their homes or left behind
when the union army moved

iii. sexual abuse by Union officers and
soldiers

b. Willing refugees for freedom

c. Agricultural labor fell more heavily on black
women during the war

“Contraband” Camp

Ascribed to McPherson & Oliver, G. H. Suydam Collection (Mss. 1394), LSU
Libraries – TitleContraband Camp, formerly used as a Female
Seminary.PhotographerAscribed to McPherson & Oliver, Baton Rouge
http://www.lib.lsu.edu/sites/default/files/sc/findaid/1394https://commons.wikimedia.or
g/w/index.php?curid=135103595

4. Self Emancipated Freed Women

a. Refugee camps were comprised of formerly enslaved women and children
b. Union perspective was a place of containment
c. Black women made them temporary homes and crucibles of freedom

i. adaptive household arrangements–cooperation among widows, or soldiers wives; adult women
took in orphans and elders.

ii mutual aid–helped one another through sickness, mourning,

iii. Challenged by union army solution to reemploy freed men and mostly women on abandoned
plantations

iv. Challenged by taxed, withheld, or unpaid wages–widows of men who had supported the Union
Army or fought in it were denied last paychecks/pensions–

v. the kin and community nourished Black women from slavery to refugee camps to new lives after
the war –these networks helped shape freedom and protest against oppression

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