All things altered : women in the wake of Civil War and Reconstruction / Marilyn Mayer Culpepper.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Culpepper, Marilyn Mayer.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Southern States--History--19th century.

Women.

Reconstruction.

History.

Southern States.

Physical Description:

ix, 366 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., [2002]

Summary:

Few readers of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind remained unmoved by how the strong-willed Scarlett O'Hara tried to rebuild Tara after the Civil War ended. This book examines the problems that Southern women faced during the Reconstruction Era, in Part I as mothers, wives, daughters or sisters of men burdened with financial difficulties and the radical Republican regime, and in Part II with specific illustrations of their tribulations through the letters and diaries of five different women.

Two of the women are: a lonely widow with young children, Sally Randle Perry, struggling to get her life back together following the death of her husband in the war; and Virginia Caroline Smith Aiken, a wife and mother, born into affluence and security, trying to emerge from the financial and psychological problems of the postwar world.

Contents:

Part I Many Voices

1. The Long War Ends 11

2. Gloomy Prospects Ahead 43

3. A World Rife with Changes 81

4. Help Wanted 111

5. The Rocky Road to Reconciliation 133

6. The Radicals and Reconstruction 165

7. Coping with a World Out of Control 189

8. New Dimensions for Women 219

Part II Five Women

9. Susan Darden: Life in Postwar Mississippi 243

10. Virginia Smith Aiken: "A New Order of Things" 263

11. Anna Logan: From Affluence to Desperation 273

12. Jo Gillis: Preacher's Wife 277

13. Sally Perry: Plaintive Cries of Pain 283.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 337-360) and index.

ISBN:

0786413395

OCLC:

49936008