Half Sisters of History

by Clinton, Catherine; Jones, Jacqueline (CON); Perdue, Theda (CON); White, Deborah Gray (CON)

• ISBN13: 9780822314967
• ISBN10: 0822314967
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-10-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

Long relegated to the margins of historical research, the history of women in the American South has rightfully gained prominence as a distinguished discipline. A comprehensive and much-needed tribute to southern womenrs"s history,Half Sisters of Historybrings together the most important work in this field over the past twenty years. This collection of essays by pioneering scholars surveys the roots and development of southern womenrs"s history and examines the roles of white women and women of color across the boundaries of class and social status from the founding of the nation to the present. Authors including Anne Firor Scott, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, and Nell Irwin Painter, among others, analyze womenrs"s participation in prewar slavery, their representation in popular fiction, and their involvement in social movements. In no way restricted to views of the plantation South, other essays examine the role of women during the American Revolution, the social status of Native American women, the involvement of Appalachian women in labor struggles, and the significance of women in the battle for civil rights. Because of their indelible impact on gender relations, issues of class, race, and sexuality figure centrally in these analyses. Half Sisters of Historywill be important not only to womenrs"s historians, but also to southern historians and womenrs"s studies scholars. It will prove invaluable to anyone in search of a full understanding of the history of women, the South, or the nation itself.Contributors. Catherine Clinton, Sara Evans, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Jacqueline Jones, Suzanne D. Lebsock, Nell Irwin Painter, Theda Perdue, Anne Firor Scott, Deborah Gray White

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Race, Sex, and Self-Evident Truths: The Status of Slave Women during the Era of the American Revolution

Southern Indians and the Cult of True Womanhood

Female Slaves: Sex Roles and Status in the Antebellum Plantation South

Women's Perspective on the Patriarchy in the 1850s

Of Lily, Linda Brent, and Freud: A Non-Exceptionalist Approach to Race, Class, and Gender in the Slave South

Radical Reconstruction and the Property Rights of Southern Women

Bloody Terrain: Freedwomen, Sexuality, and Violence during Reconstruction

Scarlett O'Hara: The Southern Lady as New Woman

Disorderly Women: Gender and Labor Militancy in the Appalachian South

Black Power: Catalyst for Feminism

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.