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Position:Home>History> WOMEN during the CIVIL WAR?Question: WOMEN during the CIVIL WAR!? what was the daily life of a women that was at home during the civil war!? [IF THEY WERE WRITING A DIARY ENTRY]
1) an example of how it was on a "peaceful" day; daily routine!. What“chores” needed to be completed!? What did they do to help!? 2) an example of how it was on a "battle" day!. what kind of dangers did they go through!? how did they prepare for the dangerous events!?Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: In the south, women would be running the farm or plantation while the men were away!. They would have all the usual chores to perform, cooking, washing, looking after the kitchen garden, the poultry, and the dairy, chopping wood, fetching water etc!. They might also be spinning and weaving, since bought cloth was in short supply during this period!. Since the men were away, they might also be working in the fields, driving ploughs etc!. They might or might not have slaves to perform these tasks!. In 'America's Women' Gail Collins writes: 'Confederate women became keenly aware that they were alone on remote farms with slaves who believed they might soon be freed!. Keziah Brevard, who woke up in the middle of the night to thoughts of secession at the onset of the war, found that as the months rolled by, the thing keeping her awake was the possibility of a slave uprising!. A middle-aged widow, Brevard was used to living alone on her plantation with a great many slaves, but by 1861, she was writing that "we know not what moment we may be hacked to death in the most cruel manner!." The wealthy Mary Chesnut, who bragged in her diary about her lack of fear, may have thought twice after her elderly cousin, Betsey Witherspoon was smothered by one of her servants!. As Chesnut discussed the tragedy with her sister Kate, a maid came in and announced that she intended to sleep in Kate's room in order to protect her!. "For the life of me, I cannot make up my mind!. Does she mean to take care of me - or to murder me!?" Kate asked her sister!. Plantation mistresses had been left alone a great deal before the war!. But then their slaves were not expecting to be freed any minute, and white male neighbors were normally nearby!. During the war, the women were truly alone, and very few of them seem to have welcomed an opportunity to demonstrate their leadership skills!. They began to flood the confedrate government with petitions asking that their men be exempt from duty in order to defend the lives and chastity of their wives and daughters from the local slaves!. In fact, as civil rights leaders pointed out after the war, there wre far fewer instances of rape or assault than anyone might have expected!. the women's far more realistic worry was that they might wake up one morning and find that their servants had simply taken off!. "I dread our hosue servants going and having to do their work" wrote Mary Lee, a Virginia woman whose male slaves ran away in 1862, with the females threatening to follow!. Women from prosperous Southern families had been raised to regard physical labour as degrading, and having slaves do it for them was a very deep-rooted part of their identity as southern ladies!. Many well-to-do women had no idea how to do household chores, and when they learned, they didn't much like it!. Kate Foster of Mississippi was forced to do the laundry when the house servants ran off, and she reported that she "came near ruining myself for life as I was too delicately raised for such hard work"!. There were reports of women who "fainted dead away" while washing windows or who took to their beds after a bout of floor scrubbing!. The Confederate Army began to draft men in the spring of 1862, during planting time, and the sight of women behind ploughs became common!. As the war dragged on, the towns became virtually all-female worlds, stripped of able-bodied men who could help with the local defense, run local business, or oeven lift heavy furniture!. Inflation became a terrible problem in the South!. A soldier's pay was $11 a month, and at wartime prices in some areas that was not enough to feed a family of four on grain alone!. Many men, meanwhile, still managed to maintain a mythical image of what their wives were doing at home!. "I do not like the idea of your weaving!. It is mortifying to me!. I wish you would not do it!." wrote Will Neblett to his wife, Lizzie, who really had no other way to clothe her family and eleven slaves!. Women got increasingly surly and started food riots, attacking merchants and army agents, raiding grain warehouses, mills and stores!. In areas where the farms were small and people had never owned many slaves to begin with, enthusiasm for the war burned out rather quickly, and wives pestered their husbands to come home and help feed their families!. When the men complied, they camped out in the woods while the women supplied them with food and blankets!. Some women physically attacked Confederate officers who were trying to reclaim their male relatives!. "The women are as bad as the men down here" complained a militia officer in North Carolina!. Although many Southern women came to regard the war as a betrayal by the men who were supposed to take care of them, some saw it as an opportunity!. In a gesture of liberation, they let down their hair and took off their hooped skirts!. "Nothing looks funnier than a woman walking around with an immense hoop -barefooted" one said!. Amanda Worthington of Mississippi gave up the huge skirts in 1862, when her worn hoop began to fall off during church services!. By 1863 she had constructed a "bloomer costume" so she could fish to help feed her hungry household!. Young women also began to cut their hair short, much to their mothers' dismay, and even the more conservative gave up elaborate hairstyles once they had no slaves to arrange them!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Women were an intergral part of the Republic's effort to stop the Nationalists' attempt to sieze power!. "La Passionaria" was a great orator for the cause!. Republican women were often in the trenches alongside the men, especially in the POUM and "The Friends of Duratti" movements!. They had limited training and the cult of bravery common in Spain at the time meant many were killed in displays of bravado!. Try "The Battle for Spain" for more examples!. Its a great account of the Spanish Civil War, lots of excellent first hand accounts!. You meant the Spanish Civil War, didn't you!? Sorry, if you wanted info!. on the English Civil War, I can't help you!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Go to www!.gutenberg!.net and download (for free) the journals of Mary Chestnutt!. She kept day to day diaries from Fort Sumter until the end of the Civil War!. She lived in Charleston when Sumter was fired on, then moved to Richmond with her husband (a member of Davis's cabinet)!. She was not an ordinary woman of that period, but it will give you an idea of the hardships even in Richmond!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Why not check out the diary of the most famous diarist of the war, Mary Chestnut!. "The Diary of Mary Chestnut" has been available for sale for sometime now!. And your local library might have a copy of it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Here's a great site about women writing letters from home during the Civil War!. http://www!.hsp!.org/default!.aspx!?id=129 An Appeal to Minnesota The Northwest Sanitary Fair requests help from citizens of the North Star State!. http://www!.edinborough!.com/Learn/Civil_W!.!.!. Mary Prescott's story about a young girl who learns the frivolity of Sanitary Fairs and the joy of giving!. http://www!.edinborough!.com/Learn/Civil_W!.!.!. Young reporter Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) visits a Christian Commission Fair in the Golden State!. http://www!.edinborough!.com/Learn/Civil_W!.!.!. A Woman's War Time Journal Dolly Lunt Burge, a Georgia woman, describes the effects of Sherman's March to the Sea!.Civil War era!. http://www!.edinborough!.com/Learn/Civil_W!.!.!. News from Home Melissa Wells, from her home in Michigan, tells her husband about her recovery from a recent "illness!." http://www!.edinborough!.com/Learn/Civil_W!.!.!. Dear Mother!.!.!. In a letter to her German relatives, Anna Schneider tells about the hardships of the Civil War in rural Minnesota!. http://www!.edinborough!.com/Learn/Civil_W!.!.!. A 10 year old girl named Carrie Berry lived in Atlanta during the Civil War when her city was burned!. She wrote a daily diary http://score!.rims!.k12!.ca!.us/activity/man!.!.!. Excellent site!. Everyday Life During the Civil War http://civilwarstudies!.org/articles/Vol_!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |