Introduction For all their good intentions, historians’ analysis of antebellum and postbellum women in South Carolina is often riddled with bias against a familial hierarchy that has existed in families since Biblical times. While this domestic and societal order is not fiction, it is only, for purposes in this research, a contextual experience that creates an understanding of women and their approach and reaction to events prior to, during, and after the Civil War, for ethical and moral values assigned to this status are of a different approach altogether. The Civil War’s effect on South Carolinian society was dramatic, as with many other states in the Union. On the homefront, a noticeable difference occurs in the woman’s role within her family structure and in her relationship to the culture in which she lived.
An Antebellum South Carolina
Antebellum Carolina On the eve of civil war, South …show more content…
Sewing circles and hospital associations became abundant. The need for women to supply these South Carolinian soldiers with supplies was great, as medicine, clothes, and other provisions were lacking, and the Confederates would learn to lean upon them as clothes makers, medical couriers, nurses, among other needed duties. In a collection entitled, South Carolina Women in the Confederacy, a paper for the Ladies’ Christian Auxiliary Association describes some of the war efforts on the part of these women,
While our sons and brothers are exposing their lives upon the plains of Virginia for our safety, and while many are languishing in hospitals on beds of pain and suffering, it is gratifying to know that our wives, sisters and mothers are laboring so zealously in their attempts to provide help for the soldiers. It has been again verified that the ladies are the most energetic portion of every community, as the work they have performed in twenty-four hours has been truly marvelous.
A Postbellum Carolinian