South Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times, Volume 3

by Marjorie Julian Spruill (Editor), Valinda W. Littlefield (Editor), Joan Marie Johnson (Editor), Jennifer Black (Contribution by), Carol Botsch (Contribution by)

Overview

Covering an era from the early twentieth century to the present, this volume features twenty-seven South Carolina women of varied backgrounds whose stories reflect the ever-widening array of activities and occupations in which women were engaged in a transformative era that included depression, world wars, and dramatic changes in the role of women. Some striking revelations emerge from these biographical portraits—in particular, the breadth of interracial cooperation between women in the decades preceding the civil rights movement and ways that women carved out diverse career opportunities, sometimes by breaking down formidable occupational barriers. Some women in the volume proceeded cautiously, working within the norms of their day to promote reform even as traditional ideas about race and gender held powerful sway. Others spoke out more directly and forcefully and demanded change.

Most of the women featured in these essays were leaders within their respective communities and the state. Many of them, such as Wil Lou Gray, Hilla Sheriff, and Ruby Forsythe, dedicated themselves to improving the quality of education and health care for South Carolinians. Septima Clark, Alice Spearman Wright, Modjeska Simkins, and many others sought to improve conditions and obtain social justice for African Americans. Others, including Victoria Eslinger and Tootsie Holland, were devoted to the cause of women’s rights. Louise Smith, Mary Elizabeth Massey, and Mary Blackwell Butler entered traditionally male-dominated fields, while Polly Woodham and Mary Jane Manigault created their own small businesses. A few, including Mary Gordon Ellis, Dolly Hamby, and Harriet Keyserling exercised political influence. Familiar figures like Jean Toal, current chief justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court, are included, but readers also learn about lesser-known women such as Julia and Alice Delk, sisters employed in the Charleston Naval Yard during World War II.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820343815
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	06/01/2012
Series:	Southern Women: Their Lives and Times Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	488
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Marjorie Julian Spruill (Editor)
MARJORIE JULIAN SPRUILL is a professor of history at the University of South Carolina.

Valinda W. Littlefield (Editor)
VALINDA W. LITTLEFIELD is an assistant professor of history at the University of South Carolina.

Joan Marie Johnson (Editor)
JOAN MARIE JOHNSON is a lecturer in women’s history and southern history at Northeastern Illinois University. She is the cofounder and codirector of the Newberry Seminar on Women and Gender at the Newberry Library in Chicago and is the author of Southern Ladies, New Women.


W. LEWIS BURKE is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the University of South Carolina School of Law. His books include At Freedom’s Door: African American Founding Fathers and Lawyers in Reconstruction South Carolina.
CHERISSE JONES-BRANCH is professor of history at Arkansas State University. She is the author of Crossing the Line: Women’s Interracial Activism in South Carolina during and after World War II and is currently writing a book on rural black women’s activism in Arkansas.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction Marjorie Julian Spruill Valinda W. Littlefield Joan Marie Johnson 1

The Lady of Cofitachequi: Gender and Political Power among Native Southerners Christina Snyder 11

Judith Giton: From Southern France to the Carolina Lowcountry Bertrand Van Ruymbeke 26

Mary Fisher, Sophia Hume, and the Quakers of Colonial Charleston: "Women Professing Godliness" Randy J. Sparks 40

Mary-Anne Schad and Mrs. Brown: Overseers' Wives in Colonial South Carolina Laura Rose Sandy 60

Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Harriott Pinckney Horry: A South Carolina Revolutionary-Era Mother and Daughter Constance B. Schulz 79

Rebecca Brewton Motte: Revolutionary South Carolinian Alexia Jones Helsley 109

Dolly, Lavinia, Maria, and Susan: Enslaved Women in Antebellum South Carolina Emily West 127

The Bettingall-Tunno Family and the Free Black Women of Antebellum Charleston: A Freedom Both Contingent and Constrained Amrita Chakrabarti Myers 143

Angelina Grimke: Abolition and Redemption in a Crusade against Slavery Charles Wilbanks 168

Elizabeth Allston Pringle: A Woman Rice Planter Charles Joyner 184

Mother Mary Baptista Aloysius (nee Ellen Lynch): A Confederate Nun and Her Southern Identity Nancy Stockton 214

Mary Boykin Chesnut: Civil War Redux Elisabeth Showalter Muhlenfeld 233

Frances Neves and Her Family: Upcountry Women in the Civil War Sara Marie Eye 255

Lucy Holcombe Pickens: Belle, Political Novelist, and Southern Lady Orville Vernon Georganne Burton 273

Notes on Contributors 299

Index 305

Editorial Reviews

This book will dispel any lingering notions you might have of southern women as fragile creatures who frittered away their lives fanning themselves on mansion porches. The energetic, resourceful females profiled in this arresting collection of essays seem to jump out of Colonial, Revolutionary, Antebellum, and Civil War times into our own era. The subjects are varied, ranging from a Native American who made peace with Spanish explorers to plantation owners, overseers' wives, slave women, feminists, and abolitionists. More proof that Women's History Month is really a 12-month a year affair.

Impressive in its comprehensiveness. . . . [T]his collection will open the eyes of a wide reading audience.

South Carolina Historical Magazine - Barbara A. Woods