Southern Women in Popular Culture

Gone With the Wind is a 1939 movie based on the novel of the same name by Margaret Mitchell. The movie follows the story of Scarlett O’Hara, a young Southern woman who cares little for others and loses the privileged position she once held as the Civil War destroys her homeland. Scarlett is, at the start of the film, roughly the same age as the diarist Alice Williamson, yet Scarlett shows few signs of emotional maturity even as the war progresses and destroys the life she once knew. Gone With the Wind remains one of the most successful films of all time and its romanticized portrayal of the Old South has become a quintessential influence on popular remembrances of Southern men and women.

The Many Roles of Southern Women in the War

Despite their popular depiction as fragile, feminine matriarchs, white Southern women of the Civil War era often occupied roles that extended far beyond their homes. From the young woman who kept a diary record of her town's occupation by Union forces to the soldier who kept her identity as a woman hidden to enlist, women in the South pushed gender boundaries to contribute to the Confederate cause. This video from the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia gives a broad overview of the many facets of women's roles during the Civil War.

Southern Women as Patriots

“Pray, Maiden, Pray!” is an 1864 ballad dedicated to “the patriotic women of the South.” Southern women’s participation in the war effort has been understood, in many ways, by the “customary moral and spiritual role” that they occupied to boost the spirits of their husbands and sons as they went to war. Southern women were expected to remain ever strong and proud as their men sacrificed their lives for the Cause. As soldiers marched through cities, women cheered them on to boost morale; however, this role as patriots was not enough for many women. Many lamented that the men were allowed to fight while they were left at home, and so began to branch out into other services to aid the war.

Southern Women as Activists

An Alabama "gunboat" quilt made in 1861 by Martha Jane Hatter. The Civil War presented Southern women with the opportunity to fraternize with one another as they never had before. With their husbands gone to war, many women chose to form organizations to raise funds for the war effort. Women who had little to no experience in public activism formed Soldiers' Aid Societies and Ladies' Gunboat Funds, then sold their products, like this quilt, to support Confederate needs. In this way, Southern women combined their learned skills as homemakers with a newfound outlet for public activism.

Southern Women As Nurses

This photograph of Southern nurse Anna Bell attending to wounded soldiers represents a position taken up by many women who wanted to aid the Confederacy. Nursing seemed like a natural duty: caring for men as they would their own husbands and sons. The Confederate health system lacked the funds and organization of the North's U.S. Sanitary Corps, but Southern women managed nonetheless, often opening up their homes to wounded soldiers from both sides. Through nursing, some women even gained managerial positions, and all faced gruesome situations that challenged the preconceived notion of Southern women's frailty.

Southern Women As Soldiers

Loreta Janeta Velazquez was a women who disguised herself as a man in order to fight as a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. Not many women actually fought in the war, but a significant number hid their gender long enough to participate in many key battles. Although many "first-hand" accounts by women soldiers are considered fiction, several soldiers were discovered as females when they were injured or killed. Other women acted as spies for the Confederacy, passing secret information from the North to the Southern leaders. In either case, these women took great risks to their own safety by fighting or spying and thus defying the gender norms of the time.

Southern Women as Record Keepers

The diary of Alice Williamson, a 16 year old living in Union-occupied Gallatin, Tennessee in 1864. There is little mention of her personal life in the diary; Alice’s short life is instead consumed by the war. Despite the Southern social standard that women had no place in politics, Alice daily expresses her disdain for the Union occupation and the presence of “black contraband.” At only 16, Alice’s knowledge regarding the politics of the war servea as a record with which modern readers can counter the myth that Southern women were unconcerned with anything outside of the domestic sphere. Although they did not hold direct political power, women certainly considered the implications of the war in a broad context and hundreds of Southern women’s diaries have since been published. Today these works offer an important glimpse into the lives of the Southern women who made it a point to record their personal histories for future generations.