The troubling voices of Confederate women : the language of family, religion, and rebellion on the occupied Civil War home front

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Using the diaries of Confederate women in occupied territory during the American Civil War as the central primary sources, this thesis seeks to articulate how Confederate women used their voices as a powerful means of resistance against the Union army. The language strategies of Confederate women fit into the matrix of southern society and the complex arenas of social power the war initiated. White southern women of all classes performed domestic labor and operated within relational networks critical to the functionality of southern households. During the war, they continued this labor to support their family, making them enemy combatants within the enemy lines. As Union forces contended with this domestic supply line, Confederate women resisted with their public and private voices. Chapter one focuses on community, family, and the household, and how these were important to the Confederate war effort. The second chapter looks at the war itself, especially interactions Confederate women had with soldiers and civilians of both sides. Debates over loyalty oaths feature prominently. Chapter 3 discusses how Confederate women's language was influenced by southern religion. Specifically, the community site of church became a political space in which southern white women operated.