But will be with us tomorrow talking about her new book. Im very pleased today, im catherine clinton, i teach at the university of texas in san antonio, and im here to moderate the panel but as all of you are aware, interject whenever i enthusiastically have some ideas that maybe we could share. Our two panelists will share comments and views with you and im going to comment and we would like to open it up to you for your questions. So i want to begin today by saying that my friend candy, candice shy hooper was born in guam to usa Navy Hospital corpsman and his wife and she attended more than half a dozen schools before her high school graduation. With an undergraduate degree in journalism from the university jaju and a law degraaik÷2 from georgetown university. It was only after her career on capitol hill as an aide to the late congressman charlie wilson, some of you may have seen him portrayed in Charlie Wilsons war and as a lobbyist with her husband she discovered her passion, returning to school in 2006 earned an m. A. In history with a concentration in military history from George Washington university. Hoopers work appeared in the new york times, in the journal of military history, michigan war studies review, an awardwinning poet and serving on the Editorial Advisory Board on the journal of military history and a member of the ulysses s. And julia d. Grant historical home Advisory Board in detroit, michigan. Lincolns generals wives published in 2016 has won National Awards and will be available for the book store and signing later today. Please welcome candice hooper. [ applause ] i first want to thank herald for this wonderful invitation, its a great honor, and catherine clinton, with the blush on the cover of my book, thank you so much. I have to thank jean and john marlack and Michelle Cowell without whom my book would not have been written or published. Like so many others stories of the civil war mine begins and ends with Abraham Lincoln. It begins in his office in the white house at the outset of the war with his unprecedented open door to all, including wives of military men seeking redress or advantage for their husbands. It concludes in the cabinet room after his assassination with the death of his hopes for a soft peace. In between those two points in american history, lies my tale of four women who influenced the civil war by influencing their husbands who fought it. In large part, because of their opinions of Abraham Lincoln. Jesse fremont, Nelly Mcclellan, Ellen Sherman and julia grant were their husbands closest confidants. No other person in the mens lives had as profound or persistent an impact upon them as did these women whom they loved and who bore their children. The generals wrote their wives regularly,hxdphpzaat even dailyt their hopes, their fears, their love and sometimes of their terrible bloody work. When the wives responded, they wrote to their husbands about love, children, home, all that fighting men need to hear. The women wrote about the war and about the men charged with waging it. Sometimes they wrote about Abraham Lincoln, sometimes they wrote to him, sometimes they traveled to washington to petition him. The wives were known to change their opinions of lincoln and their shifting views of the president influenced their actions. Perhaps as early as lincolns election, Jesse Fremont thought the real splitter naive. Soon thereafter, she decided lincoln was irrelevant when she urged her husband to issue his emancipation order in august of 1861 without consulting lincoln who had so publicly wrestled with the issue of slavery through his career. Next, jesse disdained lincoln. Her hurried trip to washington to rescue her husbands career ended badly. Lincoln listened to her carefully, asked her questions, and then just as you can imagine he would have done had she been a man, lost his temper when he heard her answers. Jesse proceeded to lose her temper too, concluding her visit by challenging the president s authority in her husbands name, by demanding the president s correspondence with the blairs, by urging her husband to print more copies of the emancipation order that the president had just told her was null and void. And then by encouraging fremont to arrest frank blair, who was lincolns man in missouri. Jesses disdain for lincoln remained unabated for the rest of her life. Only one man could engender more revulsion in jesse than Abraham Lincoln and that would be George Brenton mcclellan. In the contest for the presidency in 1864, even her lifelong love affair with fremont, who was also in the running for president , took a back seat to her fervent hopes despite her emenity toward lincoln she had far more confidence to him in that regard than she had in mcclellan and proceeded to go behind her husbands back and engineer his withdraw from the president ial race without him knowing it in order to prevent there being a split in the republican vote. Jesse sacrificed much to end slavery. First she sacrificed her husbands military career by urging him to issue that emancipation order and then against his commander in chiefs direct order to continue to distribute it widely. Then she sacrificed her husbands dream of the presidency in order to preserve his reputation as champion against slavery. All her life jesse sacrificed for john charles fremont. Of that, there can be little doubt. There is some room for doubt, though, in the relationship between nelly and george mcclellan. One of the things i look at very closely is the question of whether they ever really loved him. Theres room for doubt in whether her opinions of lincoln were hers or more influenced by her husbands. Her unfavorable views of lincoln might well have been hers because she was a spunky lady, but mcclellans own Strong Negative judgment of lincoln, stanton and halak were reinforced and often amplified by nelly in the couples correspondence. The mcclellans could always change a good opinion they had of someone, but never a bad one. Existing evidence shows that in words and deeds, nelly bolstered her husbands disdain toward lincoln and heis cabinet. When mcclellan brought nelly and their daughter to the Antietam Battlefield to marvel at the sight of his greatest victory its hard to imagine that nelly would not have known that lincoln and halak were frantically urging her husband, but mcclellan ignored them and nelly allowed him to do so. Yes, she was still a relatively young woman and he was an important military person, the apparent balance of power in a victor yan marriage tilted heavily toward the husband, nonetheless she could have found a way to subvert his illadvised arrogance at times, just as julias freak, as she called it, forced grant to refuse lincolns invitation to the theater. Nellys regrettable inaction was matched on occasion by regrettable action, as when she urged her husband to defy halaks order at the time of the second battle opinions of lincoln in private, there was still room enough for good judgment to surface in their public behavior toward him, but between the two of them, it never did. Good judgment is not a quality that historians ascribe to Ellen Sherman. If youve read anything about her or her husband, but i think theyre wrong. Although she is typically recognized for her religious zeal and nagging and both, nonetheless in her dealings with lincoln on behalf of her husband, she is an exemplar of shrewdness and political savvy. The emotional roller coaster of the shermans wartime experiences was extraordinary even by the extraordinary standards of the civil war. Rocketing from crisis to crisis, some coldly professional, some heartbreaking professional, she made dispassionate judgments about her husbands health, about what he should do and about what she and their family should do on his behalf. In every case, she urged him to stay on the job and work through the crisis at hand. The earliest calamity during the war came at its outset when sherman was nearly feld by newspapers charge of insanity. Wounded herself by the journalists bitter scorn for her husband and the shame it visited on her family, she nonetheless recovered quickly and marshalled her familys resources. Ellens early judgment, independent judgment, in support of lincoln for president , when no one else in her politically powerful family supported him, laid the groundwork for her approach to lincoln in crisis mode. Her letter to lincoln contains crafted arguments in favor of action on his part to erase the stain on shermans reputation, combing an honest assessment of shermans state of mind with a blunt recounting of the charges against him and shrewd reference to his successors similar failures to advance. After her meeting with the president in the white house, ellens trust in lincoln led her to accept lincolns verbal support even in the absence of any positive action by him, as the best course for her husband. Unlike jesse and nelly, she encouraged her husband to trust lincolns judgment. More than a year later, ellens anger led her to write to sherman that the president ought to be impeached because of his maneuvering of mcclellan over her husband. Thank you john and craig for setting up that context, because that was a very important thing. But ellen did not repeat that judgment to anyone else. She did not appeal directly to the president to change his mind. She did not even hint to sherman that he should leave the army. To the contrary when her impatient redheaded husband threatened to resign, she sternly accused him of desertion in time of war. Even when ellen did not approve of lincolns actions visavis her husband, she never lost sight of his authority and his ultimate ability to help her husband. While ellens shifting perceptions of lincoln were fairly straightforward, julia grants feelings about him must have been more complex. Lincoln and the civil war that his election sparked, destroyed the mythical way of life julia loved and forever idealized. Her childhood plantation white haven, gone. The comforts of slavery as she called them, gone. Her adored fathers superior position in the social hierarchy, gone. Her life as a pampered southern belle, gone. Her notions of war, gone. All were swept away with the tempest that was the civil war. It was a war that her husband prosecuted industriously rather than romantically. It was a war that enabled her to rise out of boredom that starved his soul. It was a war she encouraged him to fight. It was also a war that risked the lives of her husband, her children and herself, and it was a war that divided her sisters and brothers, estranged her at times from her father, and elevated her former slaves to her political status. Yet, there is no indication that julia ever expressed dismay at lincolns policies towards slavery or at her husbands workman like approach to dismantling the infrastructure of her childhood in concert with his commander in chief. Swr julia did not lack anger at lincoln, she felt warmly toward the man guiding the dismantling of the society she myth thol guised in her memoirs. She risked much to be with grant during the war traveling more than 10,000 miles over four years to bring him the sunshine he desperately needed. It was julias natural tendency to spread sunshine that led her to urge grant to invite lincoln to city point in march of 1865. It was only after mary lincoln reigned on the disposition that she insist her husband refuse the invitation to the theater. The reader of the civil war cannot help but be struck by the symmetry in these two sets of generals. The first set, fremont and mcclellan were like meteors. They blazed at first sight, raced high in the public eye, left chaos in their wake, and then faded from view. The second set William Sherman and ulysses grant, were like stars in the fading light of dusk, they were only dimly perceived but their brilliance emerged as night fell. In the darkest hours, they shown brightly enough to light a path home and they have endured. There is symmetry, too, in the wives stories. Jesse fremont and Nelly Mcclellan both displayed the most conventional 19th century wifely attribute, uncritical worshipful endorsement of their husbands every instinct. They provided emotional strength that enabled their husbands to persist and their incompetence and delusion and to reject the advice and friendship of their commander in chief whom both wives equally disdained. In the end, jesse and nelly krbtsd most to the Union War Effort by accelerating their husbands removal from active command. Ellen sherman and julia grant were no less smart or socially polished than jesse and nelly. Their husbands loved them and they loved them in return. But ellen and julia did not hesitate to take issues with the generals when they believed the actions to be wrong or their judgements ill advised. Their belief in their husbands character was not unbounded. They intelligently supported their husbands best instincts including trust in lincoln and rebuffed their worse. In military terms ellen and julia were their husbands center of gravity, the source of strength that sherman and grant used to win the civil war. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. Now im going to introduce Edna Greene Medford and although frequentlies the phrases used she needs no introduction but i always feel that its my duty to highlight important issues such as that she is serving as interim dean of the college of the arts and sciences and professor of history at Howard University where she has taught for 31 years. She is authored, coauthored or edited four books and numerous scholarly articles on slavery, the civil war, reconstruction, including lincoln and emancipation, the emancipation proclamation with herald and frank, and per spspectives of n york blacks and the dias pero. She serves on boards and is a contributor to documentaries. Skem im sure most of you have tuned in and seen her there. She is the recipient of a number of awards including the bicentennial edition of the order of lincoln, the lincoln diploma of from the college of awarded by the Lincoln Memorial university in 2014. Shes also an Alumni Achievement Award from the college of liberal arts at the university of illinois at urbana champagne in 2013, but most important professor of the year award from the Howard University Student Association in 2013 and i know youre going to welcome her back for her comments on women in the civil war. Good afternoon. As a member of the board of advisors of the lincoln forum, i thank you for being here again this year and i would like to thank herald and frank for giving me the opportunity on numerous occasions to present my perspective on the civil war and a special thank you to catherine clinton, who is truly a womans woman. She is someone who has always supported women, whether they were black, whats, green, blue, whatever, has helped our students along the way who are graduate students and shes spent most of her life committed to studying the history of women, and so i thank her sincerely for all that she has done for us and i think we should give her a round of applause. My comments are going to be rather general, but i want us to keep in mind that black womens experiences and im talking about black women here, ive titled this more than their fair burden, africanamerican women during the civil war, we need to keep in mind that black womens experiences during the war were not monolithic. The nature and extent of the wars impact depended on location, legal status, and class actually. Africanamerican women had the most to gain and in many ways the most to lose from the civil war. Those who were enslaved saw the war as an opportunity to secure statutory and practical freedom. In the case of the already free it offered the prospect of expanding liberties that had heretofore been denied to them. As they intended to realize these aspirations they faced daily challenges that tested their resolve but also that affirmed their commitment to progress and change. Black women, whether enslaved in the south or legally free, were disadvantaged both by gender and by race. They were denied inclusion in the victorian definition of womanhood. While their blood connection to their fathers and brothers elevated the status of white women and shielded them from some of the worst offenses against their sex, black women could expect and received no such accommodation. The common burdens of war, physical suffering, heartbreaking loss, uncertainty, weighed more heavily on them because of their already compromised circumstances. As black men fled the plantations and farms or oppressed by both armies or voluntarily joined the National Forces most black women constrained by the obligations of motherhood experienced the first half of the war within the confines of the confederacy. Women inherited the labor responsibilities men left behind. A reality that was hardly new for them and they as they had always performed agricultural tasks alongside men, but now they were expected to carry an even greater load. They responded to that challenge when possible by using the same tactics they had employed before the war. Work slow downs, feigning ignorance and sullenness. While black men helped to win freedom and preserve the union on the battlefield, black women pressed to do so at home. Common practices designed to protect slaveryvnceiq3 as anxd institution created a gut somexd women. Removal of the more valuable laborers outt of the union arm ofteni] resulted in the separn ofnrni families,q either when o fled or whenni u ts about to b takennr away chose tz3 strike on their own toward freedom, meaning toward the union lines. In either case, children werexd often leftym behind. Owners would become a major concern for anguished mothers once the war ended. Im reminded of anc incident reported byni one john sultonni recalledni the emov7 p ko fare he received from his enslavedok laborers when he fled his Charles City County, virginia, plantation inxd 1862. I have to put a plug in for Charles City County because thats where i was niborn. He believed his people were sad to seeco him leave. Resulted from the planters decision to carry many of their it was not any kind of love for their owner. To remain atlp home facedq sustained abuse, especially as side. Spitefulc owners turned outu and children or administeredxdx frequent and often severer beatings, even in the9nr borde states, black women faced the wrath of owners whoseqni author had been usurpde1 by unionni recruiters whonixd threatened t oppress their ment into milita enslaved women wrote letters to their husbandsxd complaining of ill treatment and imploring them to send money to support their families. nnii] asylum in the union nicamps, they were sometimes turned away without benefit of alternative shelter or a means to feedko their children or were forced back on to the plantations from which they fled. By 1863 the conditions ofok wom laborers and their children lincolns proclamationnr of freedom encouraged even greater flight. Enthusiastically oq rsq theq decrees promise the resultingu need of thee1 freefa peoplen r perceived threat leftni many in precarious state. Tpvancing arm freed tens of thousands who had no placerihao go and no jobs to suuh 9e1xd them. Gathered into camps they suffered overcrowding, violence and coneglect, consisting mainl of women and children, upwards of 25 of3w campe1 populations succumbed to starvation, exposure,co and disease. Living theirg freedxd black confederacy experienced the same deprivations of their whiteni neighbors, impacted by shortages inevitable as opposing armies met each other across ground. Just asi] dire if not more so ty precarious Economic Conditions under which most of them5a liv before the war. Dependent on thexdq goodwill of employment that woulde1 enable families. Their Economic Health even less i re as bothlp impressed free black men, thus leaving thei 3 wives and childrenw3 withoutfa sustained Financial Support and vulnerable tojf neighbors who coveted their meager acquisitions. Black women whonr had farms tha were vulnerable as wellko to forgingfa raids from bothko si. Years ofc sacrifice and labor could be wiped out instantly. Through. Lucy green, her experience exemplified theq painful realit. The n 52yearold virginia resident lost nearly all ofe c troops, notjf content to carry f her cow, calves, poultry, to garden ofxd its vegetables, the including blankets and pillows fences which she used for whenok she locked the stable to prevent the theft of her huslp they bore alp hole through the wall and killed it with a constant suspicion of being s3nion sympathizers, black wom found littleok relief. Although they did not experience the challenges that came with 9 iq nt black women sacrificed as well. Having bade1 husbandse1 havi bid farewell to husbands, to fathers and sons whom theyt relied on fore1xd financial security,cey suffered severely unequalq pay or no pay at all. Qpah of a loved one no reality impacted them moreni directly. Often seek financialni relie4jfm their states, a source that was e1 to black wives and mothers. a9 5 circumstanse 1n black husbands treated sonixdxd callously. To paraphrase, radio host paul harvey and sot im dating myse with that, and now forjf rest of the story, despiteco their suffering, the unraveling of thd union altered the experiences of black women in powerful ways. If black males proved for their worthjf as men africanamerican demonstrated they were more than voiceless victimst ofxd exploitation. The transformative nature of the war enabled them to circumvent it did for the whiteq counterparts. It allowed them to occupy a place of dignity and consequence, to contributei]ni their own growth as they waged battle to perfe in the north,e1 black women ford associations similaja to those established by white women with the aid to providing aid to soldiers and others inq distres. Local groups knitted socks, made they raised funds to support r their cause. The special objectlp of their concern were thenii] destitute occupied the camps and abandoned buildings througxoq the union occupied south. They provided relief to the tens of thousands of these residents supplying theme1lpco with ready clothes and cloth to replace the rags that provided little protection from thexdxd element. The successleful formerly enslaved dressni maker turned businesswoman solicited donors donationsi]t fai] these women ventured into gts eager to prepare black men and women deniedxd the right to rea the help fillni the quotas of the northern states. Among the best known and successful mary anne shadnrni co preventional freeman blackr abolitionist newspaper traveled throughoutc the midwest preachig her gospel of activist. co she was joineani by amongo[ o hair yet jacobs author of incidents in the life of a slave girl and josephine, another black publisher and activist. I]i these womenxd defied convention recruits in churches a w other public arenas. They appealed to the men by with military service, assertin3 as did black activists such as douglas thate1 freedom and citizenship must be secured through the efforts of africanamericans themselves. nir bpuaz threw caution aside and placed themselves directlki in harms way. Women such as Mary Elizabethlpi bowser who had acquired her freedom from her owner years before thet war began,co answe the request to return to richmond where she skillfully placed the former slave inw3e1 jeffersonlp davis white house. Fa wdo alle1 know the story bowser intelligenceni and courage were understand estimated by the confederates and as a consequence sheuhu able to n w extractni valuable information Harriet Tubman delivered enslaved people long before the war commenced. T niniconrconi m the colonel was followed by a speech from the black women who led the raid and under whose inspiration it was originated and conducted. For sound sense and real native eloquence, her address would do honor to any man and it created a great sensation. Southern black women contributed their fair share to the cause as well. Those who lived under confederate domination had to be circumspect in their support for the union. The slightest hint that they were sympathetic to the freed people or that they were willing to provide aid placed them in harms way. Yet, black women in these areas did aid the union cause by reporting on confederate troop movements and strength and anything else deemed useful to the National Army including hiding wounded soldiers, nursing them back to health, and facilitating their return to the union lines. Residents of union occupied areas of the south performservi was more transparent. As part of the armys noncombatant labor force they washed and cooked and nursed the sick and injured and performed all sorts of chores in support of the military, including the navy for women on vessels such as the red rover proved to be indispensable. Women such as suzy king taylor cooked and laundered clothes by day and taught the soldiers and local black residents at night and in between. In virginia, mary peak continued her instruction of africanamericans in the Hampton Rhodes area and in some of the urban areas, black women freed before the war took the opportunity to open or expand schools expressly for the freed people. So what lessons did africanamerican women take away from their wartime experiences. Certainly they emerged more selfassured, more confident in their own abilities, certain that they could advance of their own accord. If nothing else, they affirmed their right to be considered the equal of any man, black or white. Their sacrifice and service paralleled that of freedom and liberty loving americans throughout the nation. They helped to expand the definition of the wars objectives and offered themselves as instruments in the realization of those goals. They understood from personal experience that rights and protections were won by individually and collectively fighting for them. In the years following the war, black women especially those in the former slave Holding States but actually throughout the nation, encountered trials that threatened to erase their progress, but their wartime experiences of cooperation and sacrifice and selfhelp served them well as they attempted to negotiate late 19th Century National attitudes and agendas and that is another story that we cant cover today. [ applause ] thank you. As you see my two colleagues cover quite a bit of ground and to get us on the road to looking at women in the civil war. I am so pleased, it asks you on your sheet how many lincoln conferences are you attending this year and i am pleased to say that theres an upcoming lincoln conference to be held at Clemson University on lincolns Unfinished Business and it will be a group of nearly 50 scholars coming in and discussing all the legacy of lincoln but to have that particular conference in the former cradle of the succession of South Carolina in the shadow of John Calhouns home is a wonderful thing that we in the field of lincoln studies, in the field of civil war studies have come so far and im thinking about the way in which women have made such an unusual contribution, not only the School Scholarship but the actual women, so that we heard about these wonderful memoirs this morning but mary chestnuts diary continues to be the most cited civil war diary published and republished because of its value. We look at the way in which women on the home front really not only sustained their men at war, but also took on aspects that might not be recognized. The lost cause was mentioned this morning and for anyone doubting it, the recent literature in the field shows that women were at the very heart of the lost cause, the united daughters of the confederacy are still suing and still promoting issues in the year 2018. We also have to look at the way in which women fought at the front in disguise and increasingly were learning more about those women who were i think patriots not in disguise, but they were certainly not heralding at the time. The way in which women did also go forward in the medical fields that georgia were on medical ships, africanamerican pointing out did so much. In my recent work on southern women and the civil war, i think its time again in lincoln studies to see how many southern women can be of use and interest to those of us working here. You mentioned Harriet Tubman, hair yet jacobs, Loretta Velazquez who fought for the confederacy in a mans uniform and finally we cant forget in this bicentennial year mary lincoln. I know that taylor swifts birthday is on december 13th and Many Americans will probably take heed of that, but how many will remember mary lincoln born 200 years ago . It was indeed mary lincoln who gave Frederick Douglas a cane from her husband and in giving that cane, was trying to make the connection with lincolns legacy and africanamerican citizenship and africanamericans cause for emancipation. Its really important that we keep this in mind and i am going to say, i went into our book shop and i found the one single representation of mary there which is a double portrait, herald told us something staged, they didnt stand next to one another because of their difference in heights although we debate that, but they are very much next to one another in terms of their daily life. So i hope that mary lincoln at 200 will be something that we can really think about. Because we really want to hear from you on women, because the three of us are so excited to have a full house here, i want to see if people want to come up to the microphone and ask any questions you might have about womens legacy, about womens participation, about where the field stands now. I know that when i was asked in the 1970s by Jim Mcpherson to give a single lecture in his 19th century course, i had to cover the civil war, but also the 50 years before, the 40 years after, so now i get to give lectures on women in the civil war but i hope that some of you will share with us some of your interests. First im going to ask the panel while youre thinking of your questions, ask each and give my answer, if you could pick one woman during the civil war era you would like to know more about, like to see a biography of, who would you want to promote . Can i begin with you, candy . Do you have a favorite youve come across that you really struggled with it and if you hold your microphone up, maybe give us the my book is divided into four parts, one for each of these women, and the one part of my book about Nelly Mcclellan is the only biography of her that exists. Theres a small little book that has a threepage section on nelly and about a dozen other women in the civil war, but that is largely because her record has been lost. Mcclellan got a promise from her when they were engaged that they would write each other every day they were apart and this was before the war and they did and he did. I mean you will see these letters where he is in the middle of a battle and stops to send a telegram to nelly to tell her whats going on or to ask about their daughter. These letters he write every night after he write his reports. A lot of men wrote to their wives, but it was clear that she was writing back to him. Only five of her letters have survived, and they are at the library of congress. So we have a good letters. Theyre very good letters. Theyre during the time of the Peninsula Campaign and she covers everything from wishing he were there to take a bath and some pills with her to suggesting that he get this new thing to keep flies away where they where they land on it and they stick to it. But and a lot of what i learned about nelly came through his letters because you cant be writing back and forth every day without you responding to the other person, but theres very little about her. And as i said theres a question about whether and how much she loved george mcclellan. She accepted his second proposal of marriage. She had turned him down. She had turned down eight other men. She had been engaged to hill and her parents forced her to break off that engagement. If there was somebody i could find out more about it would be her because she was a mystery. And it is so clear she was an important part of his delusional generalship. Long answer, sorry. So edna im not saying to bring people back in time but who have you come across youd like to see . Any woman who any person who would go into the mouth of the lion, who would be willing to leave the kfrts of home in the north, and she was comfortable, apparently, and come back and pretend to be a slave in virginia in the davis white house and then pass information onto the union army had to be an extraordinary person. But we know so little about her. We dont know what happened to her after the war. And we probably never will know. But i think probably more than bowser i would be more interested in learning more about lucy green and other black women like her who were able to acquire property before the war and had that property appropriated either by the union army or the confederate army. The idea she was wiped out she was fairly comfortable, too she was wiped out by the union army and she was compensated for some of her loss but just a fraction of what her property was really worth. So id love to know more about her and other women who struggled to be successful and then had it all taken away. How did they go on after the war was over . Well, i loved your mention of jose phene saint pierre roughen. She was a woman who spoke out as a club woman in the late 19th century about what she found were the hypocrisies of white womens clubs who maybe some of their members didnt want to serve alongside or participate in the chicago exposition with white womens clubs, and she pointed a finger and pointed out the hypocrisy because if indeed you looked at black women and often they were sexually exploited she said it was to that took that exploy toigz. And she was someone i think valiantly fighting all kind of hypocrisies and pointing out things later. He could forgive the white south much but not their degradations concerning women. Does anyone have any questions theyd like to raise . I see empty microphones. I see people moving to them and we look forward to having your questions. So its open question time. If you could give your name that would be great. Im anne measliestly, the director and curator of the Lincoln Museum in lincoln, illinois, and i have a huge fascination with just average every day women during the 19th century and the development of the class structure and what women had to fight for both black and white and immigrants. So im always drawn to the women who are nameless, the ones that supported their families while their husbands were out either working or fighting in the war. One of the books i was drawn to her book is wonderful because it talks about women actually working in the white house, and we drew some inspiration from her book and some really good advice how women could be progressive today. Overall my question for the three of you is based on your research and studying women of the south, of the north, free and enslaved women what advice do you think those women could give to us today during the different movements weve been seeing that have been progressing over the years that are taking place now and are making history for us today . The movements perhaps that are in 2018 is that what youre asking . Yes, what advice can we get from the women of the past for the women here who are going into the future . Well, ive been asked to look at lincolns Unfinished Business and what would lincoln think of the me too movement. And i think thats a good idea for us to look at Abraham Lincoln and his attitude towards women, and the people less vulnerable, and look at how he interacted with people. In the white house the slave family is really understudied. Anothereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee telling you about that in her work. I think today the way which we look back from the right, from the left, to the center, from the elites to ordinary people lincoln often gives a lot of people answers. And i think, you know, im really struck by the fact that i have a late developing fascination with lincoln but i find many women that i meet in my talks even across the south can still look to that era and see hope that someone who began from such Humble Beginnings could rise and could learn in a way, you know, on an incredible learning curve to become someone so admired nrinternationally. When i taught abroad lincoln was someone who indeed treated People Fairly equally as he would want to be treated. Yes, he respected the law but during the antebellum era he supported people protesting for justice. So lincoln i think moved from law to justice in his life, and i hope there are movements now towards that. I dont know. I think maybe women of the past can teach us that perseverance is extremely important, that you never give up, that you work with others. You know, this is the period when women are struggling for the vote as well. Its not just trying to bringant end to slavery but extending womens rights notch so they are coming together to fight that cause. Now, what we could tell them, however, what we could show them is that in the struggle one has to go beyond race because there were instances as catherine mentioned that white women were not inclusive of black women in this period. What were finding today is women coming together regardless of race, economic or social background. So i think both groups have a lot to present to the other. But the main thing is to stick to it and to work together. Well, i would echo that my studies unlike these doctors has been really more particular so my insight comes from these four women and each of them was strong and resilient and they each dit what they thought was best. And oftentimes they went into the vortex of the white house in order to try to get something for their husbands to save their careers, and it was not something that only upper class or middle class white women did. You will find in the record that lincoln did have his open door policy and a number of women there are a number of accounts of women who came in who were from different kinds of circumstances. And what he did, he was generous and kind and thoughtful to those who were genuine, and he was very curt and dismissive to those he thought were playing him or trying to play him. And so i think the lesson is that you need to approach your goal with a sense of specificity and a sense of humbleness, but a real sense of perseverance in terms of dealing with people and genuine honesty. Okay, thank you. Yes, next. Ive been fascinated with bowser. But at the conference this past year a historian claims that Elizabeth Van niece misnamed her and it was actually mary jane. And i was wondering if you knew anything about this, and is it really Mary Elizabeth bowser . Yeah, apparently her original name was mary jane, that is true. The most important thing is she existed and that she did do the things that we have been saying she did. So youre absolutely right. I couldnt find anything aboutgqgqgqgqgqgqgqgqgqn and elizabeth who was an important figure in the 19th century and wrote a memoir and imagine the earliest years of the 20th history having historians claim there was no liz wealth ecley, so we do have historians battling and disagreeing over the significance, the naming of but it is good to recover some of these women and thats the work being done. Dr. John from washington, d. C. Catherine, these one mary you also forgot and thats Mary Edwards Walker who was the only female ever to receive a commission as a surgeon in the u. S. Army during the war, and shes the only woman in 1865 to be awarded the medal of honor. Even though it was taken away from her it was later restored by jimmy carter. But another important woman in the medical field, and another commercial for the museum we have her pocket surgical kit on display. Thank you. And lest we forget certainly in this era of transgendered history and recovery shes someone being explored quite
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.