women in the civil war

[laxdoc]

i am doing research for a plantation and in March the tour topic will be Women in the Civil War. I have data on the plantation during the war. I am interviewing the older family members (youngest 87). Does anyone have any good info they can share?
I have info that we can use in the weaving shed and the basket maker. Getting info on the blacksmith and kitchen. A side road, from the info I have so far I think i can do a cook book using recipes from family and area. But not finding good usable info on how the womens life on a produce plantation was impacted by the war. The planatation before the war was a produce plantation growing food the feed Wilmington,NC. So there was not a shortage of food. They grew food crops, peanuts, pigs, had bees, and fish from the sea. They also had salt pans to make salt, a grist mill, and a saw mill.
So what I am looking for is authentic info on day to day life. I have a number of books on how bad life was but they give no details.
Thanks
Charles

[Annette Bethke]

Re: women in the civil war

A Rebel Wife in Texas

[J. Donaldson]

Re: women in the civil war

Children of Pride.

[Hank Trent]

Re: women in the civil war

Lots of stuff on the wartime Carolinas at Documenting the American South.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[laxdoc]

Re: women in the civil war

Hank
been on that site. a lot of nice general comment, but nothing day to day.
charles

[laxdoc]

Re: women in the civil war

Annette
I have Mothers of Invention which uses The rebel wife as a source. I have looked on line and have been able to read parts, have the reble wife on order a local libary.
thanks for lead.
charles

[laxdoc]

Re: women in the civil war

Bob
thanks for the lead to the children of pride, am trying to get a copy.
thanks again
charles

[Hank Trent]

Re: women in the civil war

Hank
been on that site. a lot of nice general comment, but nothing day to day.
charles

Then I have no clue what you're looking for. Here's an example of the kinds of things I was thinking might be useful from that site, each from a different household's diary:

Jan. 23rd
No more news from father. I begin to think he has stayed to get the negroes out. We hear so many rumors of the movements of the Yankees and of our own troops, but they are not worth noting. ******* Mother has packed up the clothing and bed-linen that we may save those at least. All the books are packed too. I have not been in the library since they were taken down. It would make me too sad to look at the empty shelves. *** It may be of interest some day to recall the poor style in which we lived during the war, so I shall make a few notes. My underclothing is of coarse unbleached homespun, such as we gave the negroes formerly only much coarser. My stockings I knit myself, and my shoes are of heavy calfskin. My dresses are two calicoes, (the last one bought cost sixteen dollars a yard) a homespun of black and white plaid, and an old delaine of pre-war times that hangs on in a dilapidated condition, a reminiscence of better days. We have a couple of old silks, carefully preserved for great occasions and which do not look shabby for the simple reason that all the other old silks that still survive the war are in the same state of decay. The homespun cost about eight or ten
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dollars a yard, - calico is 20 to 30 dollars a yard now, and going higher from week to week. My shoes are 150 dollars a pair. In two or three months these prices will be doubled. We live tolerably poorly. Two meals a day. Two plates of bread for breakfast, one of wheat flour as five bags of flour were recently made a present to us else we would only have corn bread. Corn itself is forty dollars a bushel. Dinner consists of a very small piece of meat, generally beef, a few potatoes and a dish of hominy and a pone of corn bread. We have no reason to complain, so many families are so much worse off. Many have not tasted meat for months, and we too having a cow are able to have butter. Wood is hard to get at one hundred dollars a load. We keep but one fire in the dining room where we sit. We have been fortunate in having gas thus far, (at eighty dollars a thousand) but since the freshet the supply of rosin has been deficient and now and then it is cut off and we burn tallow candles at two dollars apiece. We never have sweet things now, and even molasses candy is a rarity seldom to be thought of. Link

Next time I go shopping, I mean to ask some clerk, out of curiosity, what they do sell in Clinton. The following is a list of a few of the articles that shopkeepers
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actually laugh at you if you ask for: Glasses, flour, soap, starch, coffee, candles, matches, shoes, combs, guitar-strings, bird-seed, - in short, everything that I have heretofore considered as necessary to existence. If any one had told me I could have lived off of cornbread, a few months ago, I would have been incredulous; now I believe it, and return an inward grace for the blessing at every mouthful. I have not tasted a piece of wheatbread since I left home, and shall hardly taste it again until the war is over Link

Yesterday, Johnny went to his plantation for the first time since the war began. John Witherspoon went with him, and reports in this way: "How do you do, Marster! How you come on?" - thus from every side rang the noisiest welcome from the darkies. Johnny was silently shaking black hands right and left as he rode into the crowd.

As the noise subsided, to the overseer he said: "Send down more corn and fodder for my horses." And to the driver, "Have you any peas?" "Plenty, sir." "Send a wagon-load down for the cows at Bloomsbury while I stay there. They have not milk and butter enough there for me. Any eggs? Send down all you can collect. How about my turkeys and ducks? Send them down two at a time. How about the mutton? Fat? That's good; send down two a week."

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As they rode home, John Witherspoon remarked, "I was surprised that you did not go into the fields to see your crops." "What was the use?" "And the negroes; you had so little talk with them."

"No use to talk to them before the overseer. They are coming down to Bloomsbury, day and night, by platoons and they talk me dead. Besides, William and Parish go up there every night, and God knows they tell me enough plantation scandal - overseer feathering his nest; negroes ditto at my expense. Between the two fires I mean to get something to eat while I am here."

For him we got up a charming picnic at Mulberry. Everything was propitious - the most perfect of days and the old place in great beauty. Those large rooms were delightful for dancing; we had as good a dinner as mortal appetite could crave; the best fish, fowl, and game; wine from a cellar that can not be excelled. In spite of blockade Mulberry does the honors nobly yet. Mrs. Edward Stockton drove down with me. She helped me with her taste and tact in arranging things. We had no trouble, however. All of the old servants who have not been moved to Bloomsbury scented the prey from afar, and they literally flocked in and made themselves useful. Link

Of course, those random examples may not suit what you want, and they're not necessarily from the Carolinas, but they're what I'd call day-to-day specifics. If you can give a more detailed idea what you're looking for, maybe we can help.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Re: women in the civil war

You should probably see Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston's diary from 1860-1866. She lived in Halifax County, North Carolina.

You might also consider trips to Duke's Special Collections and the Southern Historical Collection with such people as the Collins family who lived at Somerset Place and the Camerons who owned Stagville Plantation among other pieces of property. It would probably be wise to utilize the Works Progress Administration slave narratives, since black enslaved women performed more work than white planter women could ever have imagined.

[laxdoc]

Re: women in the civil war

Hank
My need is having the tour tell true facts. The plantation did not suffer food shortages because it was a produce plantation growing food aas the cash crop, also being on the sea had fish etc.
They did not have slaves drafted to work on fortifcations. Belive this was because of the salt works. As to men the father died april 1861 and oldest son died june 1862. Mother and next son ran the plantation. In a lot of what I have found, the ladies were not skilled. But at the plantation i have ladies who could do and did not moan. The plantation slaves were well treated and stay after the war as tenanted farmers. They had a saw mill, grist mill, turpintine still, salt pans, weaving shed, basket maker, and blacksmith. The family were also union people. They did get raided by Union patrol and lost four horses, two mules, 50 busles peanuts, 300 pound bacon and 30 bee hives which they got paid for in 1872. I know they grew flax and cotton for their own use. I am finding how made things they could not get any more. So I am looking for info how people coped, I have in the food line, how they made do about coffee and spices. Since the ladies had made clothing before the war they kepth on during the war. They traded food and peanut oil for fabric. It appears they because of location, they did not have the same problems as else where.
Charles

[laxdoc]

Re: women in the civil war

Emmanuael
Have those and have a contact at Stagsville. We have school groups come on tour, so need good facts. Today just found out how spices were done in this time frame(not sure if I wanted to know so much). It is funny am finding a lot of info on food in detail but not so much detail on other subjects.
Thanks for your info
Charles

[Hank Trent]

Re: women in the civil war

Hank
My need is having the tour tell true facts.

If you're looking for "true facts" about this particular plantation, I expect that you're probably more aware than anyone of the best local resources on that, or you'd need to search online for published or private collections of family papers from the family who lived there. But unless family members left diaries or letters, or visitors to the plantation left written descriptions of their visits, a lot of it may never be known.

If you're looking for generic "true facts" about how some people coped in somewhat similar situations and how those on the plantation might typically have coped, then that's a different issue and, in a lot of cases, it may be as close to the truth as you get, unless you have letters or diaries or memoirs of the actual residents.

I am finding how made things they could not get any more. So I am looking for info how people coped, I have in the food line, how they made do about coffee and spices. Since the ladies had made clothing before the war they kepth on during the war. They traded food and peanut oil for fabric. It appears they because of location, they did not have the same problems as else where.
Charles

If you're looking for detailed information about how typical people coped when they had to do without specific things, I'm still not sure why Documenting the American South wouldn't be helpful. The Confederate Receipt Book is good for that, on DtAS again, and it's not all food. Porcher's Resources of the Southern Fields... is another source, covering dyes, medicines, and other things besides food. Another site, Vicki Betts' mostly southern newspaper archive is another source, and of course you can try various other search terms there besides the one I linked to.

But still, saying that some people made coffee by roasting acorns or sweet potatoes or whatever, is a true fact in the sense that some people did it, but not a true fact in the sense that those living at your plantation definitely did, unless you have a source to tie it to the plantation specifically.

If I'm understanding correctly, you have enough information on food, while clothing and most other things weren't an issue because the residents either had enough left over or produced it on the plantation. So what substitutes or makeshift items or work-arounds are you looking for specifically now? Or are you looking for how some specific things were normally done, such as making turpentine or boiling salt or whatever? Google books is a quick-and-easy starting point for a lot of that, for example making turpentine.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com