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