Description
Book SynopsisWhether it was planter patriarchs struggling to maintain authority, or Jewish families coerced by Christian evangelicalism, or wives and mothers left behind to care for slaves and children, the Civil War took a terrible toll. From the bustling sidewalks of Richmond to the parched plains of the Texas frontier, from the rich Alabama black belt to the Tennessee woodlands, no corner of the South went unscathed. Through the prism of the southern family, this volume of twelve original essays provides fresh insights into this watershed in American history.
Trade ReviewThe quality of work is uniformly excellent. This collection will prove useful to a wide variety of scholars. It will appeal especially to those working on the Civil War, the family, gender relations or African American studies. * Journal of American Studies *
Catherine Clinton has brought together a fine collection of twelve essays exploring the diverse and multiple experiences of the war years and their legacy in the American South ... solidly researched and welcome contributions to the new social history of the Civil War. * American Studies Today *
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Michael P. Johnson: Looking for Lost Kin: Efforts to Reunite Freed Families after Emancipation 2: Michelle A. Krowl: For Better of Worse: Black Families and 'the State' in Civil War Virginia 3: Donald R. Shaffer: In the Shadow of the Old Constitution: Black Civil War Veterans and the Persistence of Slave Marriage Customs 4: Amy E. Murrell: "Of Necessity and Public Benefit": Southern Families and their Appeals for Protection 5: Judith Lee Hunt: "High with Courage and Hope": The Middleton Family's Civil War 6: E. Susan Barber: "The White Wings of Eros": Courtship and Marriage in Confederate Richmond 7: Jennifer Lynn Gross: "Good Angels": Confederate Widows in Virginia 8: Daniel W. Stowell: "A Family of Women and Children": The Fains of East Tennessee during Wartime 9: Henry Walker: Power, Sex, and Gender Roles: The Transformation of an Alabama Planter Family during the Civil War 10: Lauren F. Winner: Taking up the Cross: Conversion among Black and White Jews in the Civil War South 11: Anne J. Bailey: In the Far Corner of the Confederacy: A Question of Conscience for German-Speaking Texans 12: Ted Ownby: Patriarchy in the World Where There is No Parting?: Power Relations in Confederate Heaven
