Southern Women

Sally G. McMillen is Professor of history at Davidson College, where she has taught since 1988. She is also the author of Motherhood in the Old South: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Infant Rearing (1990), To Raise Up the South: Sunday Schools in Black and White Churches, 1865—1915 (2002) as well as several journal articles. She is co–editor of Major Problems in the History of the American South (1999). Born and raised in southern California, she is the mother of two grown children. Her personal interests include running, hiking, biking, reading, and traveling.

Forward vii


Acknowledgments xi


INTRODUCTION: An Overview of the South and Southern Women 1


CHAPTER ONE: Family Life and Marriage 13


Family 13


Courtship and Marriage 17


Miscegenation and Sexuality 25


Marriage 34


Black Women and Marriage 37


White Women and Marriage 41


Laws and Marriage 48


CHAPTER TWO: Reproduction and Childrearing 57


Fertility 57


Pregnancy 62


Childbearing 66


Motherhood and Childrearing 74


CHAPTER THREE: Social Concerns: Education and Religion 90


Education 90


The School Experience 95


Education for the Less Privileged 101


White Women and Religion 104


Women’s Benevolence 111


Black Women and Religion 114


CHAPTER FOUR: Women and Work 118


The Meaning of Southern Women’s Work 118


Slave Labor 120


Slave Protest 126


White Women and Work 128


Work on the Frontier 132


Paid Employment 135


Nontraditional Roles 140


Interracial and Class Relationships 144


Those Who Questioned Slavery 151


CHAPTER FIVE: Southern Women and the Confederacy 154


Elite White Women 155


Slave and Free Black Women 172


Yeoman and Poor Farmwives 176


Coping Skills and Union Supporters 180


End of War 182


Conclusion 183


Bibliographical Essay 187


Index 209


Photos follow page 100