Civil War: The Role Of Women In The Antebellum Era

Female Confederate Spies Ever since the establishment of the new world, women have held less power and privileges than men. As history progressed, the female role began to change. During the American Revolution, women supported the war by providing blankets and care for the hurt soldiers. In the Civil War, women took on new roles in the fight that were not as innocent as the jobs in the preceding events.

The Reconstruction Era occurred in 1865, it was was a period after the Civil War in which America was focused on rebuilding the broken South. In 1867, the Radical reconstruction gave former slaves a voice in government. During this era, formers slaves gained a platform in the government, with some blacks as Congressmen. However, not everyone supported the idea of Reconstruction. Less than a decade after the Reconstruction period, a small group composed of democratic ex-confederate veterans, white farmers and white southerners sympathetic to white supremacy joined forces together to form the Ku Klux Klan. The clan spread fear and terror towards the blacks in a systematic way. Their reign of terror was felt throughout the south. It spread fear using guerilla tactics, whipping, beating, and lynching. The Klan’s purpose

Since the men were gone women began to have a more prominent role within the household by having to assume responsibilities they otherwise would not have had. From the documentary “Mary Silliman’s War” we know that women were not so caught up in the politics of the fighting and generally opposed it. We also know that women helped as washer women in refugee camps for displaced citizens or at army encampments. Gender roles did not change drastically after the war had been fought, but the new roles they did experience were an

The Civil War African American men and women roles in the civil war Name Affiliation Date Introduction In 1861, most African American men welcomed the beginning of the civil war when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina after the inauguration of the U.S president Abraham Lincoln. Most of the African American men served as guards for railways and bridges, scouts and spies in addition to their participation in the war fighting troops (Smith, 2002). Because of the suffering at home, thousands of the enslaved African American women began the transition to freedom and began new lives regardless of the horrors of the civil war (Blanton and Wike, 2002).

The Antebellum Period was a time when people started thinking about changing social classes. This all started after the War of 1812 and before the beginning of the Civil War. This happened in many countries, but in the United States this was looked at a couple of main groups of people. This was pointed to Native Americans, African Americans, women, and Irish immigrants.

The Role of Women in the Antebellum South The distinction between men and women in the Antebellum-era Southern United States can be identified in the roles that each gender was expected to fulfill as parents, spouses and citizens. While young men and women alike were encouraged to marry and immediately start a family, females were primarily given the task of caring for their children and husband. Because they were viewed as the ‘morally superior gender’, women were supposed to raise the next generation of obedient citizens, while men were free to pursue a career and get involved in politics. As a result, a movement arose to expand the rights and freedoms of women, with the ultimate goal of creating a society where equal opportunities are

For women in the Southern Colonies had very few legal rights such as not being able to vote or preach.

Due to this, women back home were expected to work the men’s hard labour. World War 1 tested gender roles and it changed the way women were looked at. Before war women, if married would stay home to cook, clean and look after the children. Cooking cleaning and waitressing were all considered service work that single women would have to attend to, and young women were expected to marry

While reading about American history the thing that I found most appealing was the limited rights that women had during this era. Although women gave the early settlers longer life expectancy and brought hope to their future, women still were not considered equal to a man. Women were discriminated against and didn’t play an important role in early American history. Generally, women had fewer legal rights and career opportunity than men because they were considered weak and not able to perform certain tasks. Different women came from different ethnic backgrounds and were all created equal in the eyes of men. Men believed that women served only one purpose which was to take care of the household. Being a wife and a mother was considered

But what is rarely mentioned is all the behind the scenes work women were responsible for while men were off fighting in the military. The war disrupted their ordinary lives, and the everyday roles men were employed in needed to be filled. Women throughout the United States assumed untraditional roles to so that life would continue, now being involved in politics, factories, businesses, commanding the household, and helping during

The American Civil War was fought between the North and the South from 1861 to 1865. The disagreement of whether or not to abolish slavery was what started the Civil war, with the North wanting to rid America of slavery, while the South wanted to keep slavery alive. In the beginning of the Civil War it was considered a “white man’s war”. This seems quite odd considering it was a war fought over the enslavement of African Americans. When learning about the Civil War in school students often hear about Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant and of course Abraham Lincoln, but what about some of the key African Americans during the Civil War, such as Frederick Douglas, Mary Bowser, and Mary Touvestre. Those names might sound familiar, but when asked

(pbs.org) But a source of labor was high in demand since most of the men left to fight in the war. This opened up many opportunities for the minorities in America, especially women. Before the war, women didn’t have outside jobs. Their role was to tend to family affairs and stay at home while the husband worked to make a living.

Men were always the workers within the family, the ones that were expected to provide for their families. When they went to war, their role within community life needed to be filled. That is when their wives, daughters, and sisters stepped up and took over. “In addition to caring for their families, [women] were left to supervise businesses and farms while the men were away fighting” (Senker). Women were already cooking, cleaning, and caring for their children, but still made time to work and provide as a father figure every single day.

Men have seemingly been the dominant force when it comes to jobs. However, in 1861, specific gender roles for men and women diminished due to the Civil War. As males traveled to the battlefront, women undertook masculine roles in order for society to continually thrive. Charles Frazier, the author of Cold Mountain, includes the tales women and men during the Civil War era, along with how the society's viewpoint evolved throughout the years.

Even after the war, women were urged to stay at home to take care of the children. On the other hand, males would deal with financial businesses to keep their family out of poverty. These gender roles were embedded