prescriptions for southern women. they were taught and prepared to one day assume their place upon the proverbial pedestal of the southern lady. these female youths also were born and raised in a period of american history when the regional debates over slavery had reached a fevered pitch. they had nothing else. they had no other memory of a different kind of political context. but these young women looked to the past with a romantic gaze hoping to return to an idealic south that passed generations of southern women had enjoyed. so when the region stood on the brink of war in early 1861, young women, daughters of the slave holding families, believed that not only was their way of life at stake, but so was their ability to live up to the ideals of southern slave holding women set before them. they thought their future was at stake. young women -- these girls really enjoyed a life of privilege. they -- of course, privilege included fashionable dress, private education, also a lot of social engagements, and they believed that this was all in preparation to become wives and mothers and even slave mistresses themselves. it was in preparation to enter as adult women in the gentry class. yet, the regional strife threatened this cultural script as they searched for ways to come to terms with the possibility that their socioeconomic status was in jeopardy. they found a source of blame. that source was president lincoln and northern sentiment against the institution of slavery that resonated from the abolitionist movement. now, at best, they saw these two entities as a source of disruption, to their otherwise content lives. at worst they viewed them as a threat to the life course that they had come to accept, and in other words, that their future was uncertain. in essence, they placed the blame for the conflict on lincoln and northern appear abolitionists, and as a result, they threw their support behind the confederate cause, and, of course, that cause was to form an independent nation. now, their expressions of such sentiment were often reactionary in nature. especially to events happening on the local regional and national levels, but we have to remember that these expressions were filtered through the lens of youths. these young women used the youth culture of their economic class and their gender and that's what brought them into high relief in the landscape of the confederate south. now, using age and gender as a -- as categories of analysis we'll find that these young women were often permitted a greater degree of freedom in their patriotic expressions, any of their expressions about the union and about lincoln and, of course, much more freedom than their mothers and older female kin were allowed. their gender and their youth became tools to convey those sentiments against the union and lincoln throughout the course of the war. i would like to start with lincoln's election because that, of course, got a lot of attention from young women. in the months leading up to the 1860s election women of all ages were very concerned about what the consequences would be. several daughters echo the sentiment of many whites, especially over their parents, that lincoln's election would create a state of chaos. margaret josephine gilles, who was living in alabama at the time of lion's election recorded such a view in her diary. she wrote, well, our party has been defeated, and lincoln and hamlin are elected for president and vice president. all southern states are called to act together, and we are listening to the call for arm to arms every day. gillis apparently took this call to arms literally and actually began to practice shooting kind of sadly shooting small rodents in her backyard, but she said that in anticipation of the coming storm she was practicing her shooting asiduously. now, her anger towards lincoln grew even more, and she actually did something that was very bold for a gentile southern girl. she wrote in her diary -- i don't know if this is true or not, but she wrote in her diary that she actually sent lincoln a quote, right imputent valentine, but she thought she was afraid people had known she had done that and hoped no one would. lincoln's election only strengthened women's resolve for southern independence, and parents made sure that their daughters understood why they should support the confederate cause. for example, as a member of the slave holding family in monroe, louisiana, sarah wadley's father endorsed the session and made sure that his daughter understood why. after several conversations with him, wadley laid blame for the sectional tensions on northerners who in her words have sowed the seeds of dissension and resurrection among us. a bloody harvest seems impending. they shout freedom and union, but they would take away our freedom and give it to the negros. as a member of a prominent slave-holding family in florida, young susan bradford had a similar sort of education in the southern cause. her father actually gave her book by john c. calhoun on state's rights, and, again, teaching her more and more about the southern position, and by 1860 it was very clear that she had internalized her father's secessionist views. after reading an article in 1860 about the election, she concluded that republican candidates "have two objects in view. the freeing of the negros and the downfall of the south." the incolecation of the secessionist position did more than teach southern daughters the cause of independence. it helped define the enemy and the potential they posed to their future. as states in the lower south rushed to organize succession conventions, young women, of cour course, felt them to be present to be vocal about this work for leaving the union. in one example, louisa mcchord of columbia, south carolina, found secession activities in the state just too interesting to ignore. before lincoln's election she actually could care less about politics. she said absolutely nothing about it in her writings. after the election as columbians celebrated the state's decision to secede, she joined the bevy of political activity. she along with many of her piers actually donned blue badges with the palmetto emblem to show their support for south carolina. the others in the upper south, of course, who waited until after events at fort sumpter to secede, also we see a lot of young women in those areas being very expressive about their support for secession. chloely tyler whittle of norfolk, virginia, believed her state had no recourse, but to leave the union after ft. sumpter. and, of course, when she heard about lincoln's request for 75,000 troops, she became even more upset. she wrote in her diary that the thought was appalling. when she confirmed the troops would be down in the south, so wrote in one of her entries, she wrote "secession, immediate secession. lincoln was a primary target for much of their frustrations. due to his distance and the impersonal nature of the executive office, young women had to find sort of closer more intimate objects in which to project their fear and their anger. of course that came in the form of those physically close to them. in particular, african-american slaves that the family owned. foremost in their minds in the early stages of secession and war was the state of the enslaved as the news of an abolitionist president spread throughout thein country cat slave communication network in the south. thu feared that an election of an -- could insight rebellion among their slaves. this, of course, is coming on the heels of a very big plot to help the slaves rebel and that was the 1859 raid on harper's ferry in virginia. that's, of course, i'm sure as many of you know, that's when an armed band of abolitionists by led by john brown seized an armory in hopes of sparking a slave rebellion. and although brown's plan failed, the raid just fueled white southerners' fear that a northern conspiracy was existing in their midst to turn the slaves against them they began to question the loyalty of the enslaved. in fact, those who had served them. they became very fearful. susan bradford, for example, found the news of harper's ferry quite distressing and grew increasingly anxious about the status of the slaves in her own home. the bradford family was a very prominent wealthy family and they owned a plantation in leon county, florida. they owned 142 slaves. i'm not surprised that she was worried. a lot of them, of course, most of them worked in the fields, but there were a handful that she considered extensions of her family and even those people who worked more intimately in the home with her, she questioned their loyalty. she became very suspicious of them. she had several comments to say about this. she wrote after hearing about harper's ferry, she wrote the horrible, horrible time that has come to us, our world seems to have turned topsy-turvy, and she wrote also trust -- i trust none of the dear black folks who before this we had relied on every turn. she wandered anxiously if "the people we have always loved will put the torch to our homes and murder us as we seek to escape." she closed her diary entry of that particular topic with an expression that the -- that she believed that the violence of harper's ferry was just the beginning and that john brown was actually -- what he was doing was urging all slaves to rise up against their white families, as she considered them. she also -- i thought this was really interesting. she also turned her suspicions towards outsiders. now, bradford, like many young women, were educated by a governorness and many of those governornesses that would teach in the home were from the north. bradford turned on the governorness and tried to get her fired, and told the parents that she believed that, quote, she has not even taught school before. and that she is not like we have ever had before, really painting her as an outsider and everybody should be suspicious of her. nonetheless, the governorness left right before the war commenced. what is encouraging the sentiment of these female -- these young females, whatsoever righting up their opinion about the north, about the union position. of course, letters from home and to the schools where a lot of these girls spent the war. they would -- parents often sent their daughters to boarding schools to get them away from the war itself and so they would receive letters about what was going on at home. also, educators, even the churches helped to kind of stir the emotions of these young women. in terms of what they were hearing from their family members is there's a great example from james hinkin on a letter in 1860 that he wrote to his sister, virginia, and he actually expressed a hope that after lincoln's election that the -- that the state of virginia would remain in the union. he actually didn't want virginia to secede, but he made it clear that he thought the regional conflict was the result of the north and what he saw as a tax on the slave system. like many slave holding men, james came to view the southern cause as the defense of their republican rights and liberties, calling on that revolutionary heritage, and he wrote this to his sister, which i can imagine only stirred her emotions even more. he wrote "murderous demagogues in a spirit of blasphemy hugs this trying time close in their slimy embrace and hisses between his clinched teeth, destruction upon the peace of his fellow citizens and the welfare of his country." he blamed the fanaticism, as he called it, on the rhetoric of northern politicians whom he described as, quote, blacks from hell. these are the kind of messages these young women are getting from their brothers, obviously, in the hinkins' example, but also obviously their fathers and other male kin. certainly it concerns them quite a bit and they reflect on it in their diaries. they also write back engaging them in discussions about what should they do in preparation for potential war and they're also echoing what their male kin are saying about lincoln and the union. churches also played a very important role in encouraging women to support the confederate cause. they offered really a spiritual defense of secession. sarah wadley used the church very useful in the ideological basis for the confederacy's formation. and she heard what she called a very persuasive sermon on what was about the, quote, mistaken piety of the abolitionists. apparently the minister had delivered a whole sermon on that, and wadley, like many young women of the slave-holding south, obviously absorbed that scholarship scriptural defense for the confederacy. certainly the church played a big role, but schools did too, and i found this really fascinating how much educators really encouraged young women to accept the sentiment against the north and against lincoln and at the same time to accept the movement to form a separate nation. educators really felt it was their duty to instill a sense of political responsibility and patriotism to their young charges. as i mentioned, many young women from this age group -- excuse me, age group and economic group, spent the war -- still receiving their education. they could afford to do that. and in the classrooms often became a venue for this political expression. i thought this was quite interesting. i wish i could find more evidence about it, but immediately after secession, many southern schools began to reorient their curriculum to reflect their ideological arguments about the confederacy and about the conflict with the union. the daily richmond enquirer, a newspaper in richmond, virginia, reported that southern publishing houses were releasing their own versions of text books, and one of them -- i wish i could find this -- is called "the southern confederacy arithmetic book." so you can imagine what the word problems would be like. i don't know. if you find one of those, please get in touch with me. by 1863 the confederate government actually had taken steps to organize at their own separate teachers association. they said that one of the primary purposes of the organization was to help teachers adopt textbooks that "were for the instructions of youth preparing them -- prepared by southern men who alone can rightly understand the once of wants of our people." they basically wanted to purge the curriculum of any sort of northern influence whatsoever. now, these young women had many opportunities to channel their views, their sentiment, just their emotions about supporting their confederacy, about really being against the whole effort of the preserving the union, about the north, about lincoln. they had many ways that they could channel this sort of energy that they -- was building up and one of the ways was to participate in a homefront activity. a lot of young girls from this economic group keep in mind they had the time to be able to engage in public activities. they went with their mothers into a number of organizations like local soldiers' aid societies, they would help raise money with their mothers, sort of worked alongside them in these organizations. and they also reflected on why they were doing it. needy fondrin, for example of thomasville, georgia, she talked about how it was the duty of all women on the home front regardless of their age to get involved. if ever there was on earth an elevated task for women, it is working for the brave men whose lives are offered up to -- for us, and on whom the salvation of our country actively depends. so that was the kind of similar view that both older and younger women held why they should get involved in the homefront effort. even though it really is putting them out there as public figures. they're very visible and certainly it was okay, though, in this kind of time in war time. what i thought was interesting is that even though these young women are sort of shadowing their mothers in these organizations, they're also doing their own thing, and they're expressing their patriotism helping out with the cause in their own way that's really centered within their peer culture. for example, the patriotic sort of frenzy of the confederate homefront encouraged young women to transform their social engagements that before they had used to find potential beaus. that was the way to sort of enter into that courtship stage and be very active, but now they become sort of venues for political expression. in july of 1861, for example, clara solomon and several of her female friends in louisiana attended a picnic that normally would have been a time just to -- just to socialize, but the picnic now is to raise money for destitute families of volunteers. another really popular activity for these young women was to gather as a group and sew a flag to present to a local company of volunteers, and susan bradford, again, she wrote in her diary that she was just filled with pride when they completed their flag and went and presented it to the local company. she wrote this. "everyone did our part in the work. even if the stitches were few and when the fingers unskilled." just as an aside, though, i have to say these young women really did like to present flags to the confederate soldiers. not just to show their patriotism, but it was also a good way to meet a potential pen pal and to sort of be a little flirtatious with the soldiers. they really, really idealized these men and, of course, they're teenage girls, so it was fun for them to do that. young women also, though, organized their own community activities to raise money for the confederate effort. for example, a tableau was a popular thing to do. in one such instance cordelia scales played volunteer on the guitar where a young man costumed as a soldier stood beside her, and people came and watched that and donated money. sally clayton of atlanta, georgia, and her friends participated in a similar scene entitled "young lady with the blues" posing along side the fulton blues, which was a mock company consisting of very young boys who obviously could not serve in the military. these young women took their typical social engagements and made them into very politicized events. another thing that i thought was interesting was that young women also transformed their normal concerns with fashion and dress into a political statement. before the war they had regarded dress as purely a matter of taste and distinction, but eventually they decided that it was important to show that they weren't engaged in such frivolous things and transformed their clothing. for example, chloe went to a neighbor's house in virginia after the secession was announced, and she went and wore her secession dress, and she remarked it shows what women can do when all that is in their power is put a few brass buttons up the front of their dress. probably even more of a bold statement was from annie jeter of new orleans who along with her female peers made confederate flags to wear as aprons and put cotton blossoms in their hair when they went to a concert to benefit the soldiers. now, those activities that i mentioned are happening before really union occupation is occurring. there's pockets of it, but early in the war young women are separated from actual federal troops. when the troops do start to occupy more southern communities these expressions of patriotism definitely change. the distant enemy of lincoln and the abolitionists that seem so far removed from their lives had now come home to roost in the form of these federal soldiers. so they turned their anger towards them. they became the targets. they saw them really as sort of extensions of lincoln and the abolitionists. they felt compelled to demonstrate their sentiment and their interaction with the occupiers. the thought of yankee soldiers in their towns appalled and frightened these young women, but the actual contact with the enemy nurtured their animosity toward the union and upheld their dedication to the confederate cause. just give you some examples of how they're expressing themselves when interacting with these soldiers. when the town of murphysboro, tennessee, was occupied, alice ready wrote that only relief from that -- the only relief from them will be death. i pray for it. sarah wadley likewise vowed that i would rather die than see our armies humiliated by flight, our country ruined by submission, worse than death would be our conquest by the yankees. now, when federal soldiers occupied virginia hinkins community in april of 1864, she really grew to resent their presence. her first experience came with them when a calvary came up to their plantation looking for supplies. the invasion of union soldiers into the domestic circle really heightened her anger towards the enemy. she expressed by calling into question the honor of northern soldiers, and she wrote this. ha, these were brave men. charging so valorously on women and little children. how proud and undaunted they looked. she says that the union soldiers approached the house for brandy. i don't know how true that is. they were looking for some supplies, and eventually they left with the family's mules. after that her neighbor was arrested for being a supporter of the confederacy, and this, of course, just left virginia with nothing but hatred towards the occupiers. she intimated to her brother that if she was in possession of a pistol, "i shall not hesitate to use it." which is a very bold statement for a young woman of her standing. for those living away from home, the news of union occupation for family members, just fuelled their resentment towards the enemy. in 1864 as the state of virginia experienced shortages of supplies and rising inflation, the hinkins' family actually was on the brink of poverty. once a very wealthy family, now just almost destitute. the daughter -- their daughter, virginia, actually was away at times visiting friends and family in richmond. she at one point received word of a sudden downturn in her family's economic state. her mother warned that if the affairs in the portion of the confederacy don't change very soon, every person will be ruined.