Week 13 Questions/Comments-327 13

1 Overarching or comparative questions
Some women were motivated to nursing by patriotism and other by caregiving instincts. Generally, I was wondering how nurses (and armies in general) felt about nursing the enemy soldiers? Were their instances where an army would refuse treatment to a soldier, but a nurse went out of her way to aid him? Or were their women who refused to help enemy solider because of their loyalty? -Kasey Moore

2 Louisa May Alcott, Hospital Sketches, 1862-1863
In the description of Louisa May Alcott’s piece in 1863, it says that once Dorothea Dix became superintendent of nurses for the Union army she issued a call for nurses. In her description she wanted them to be between 30 and 50 years old, single, sober, hard-working, moral, and “plain-looking women.” Dix’s description just reiterates that women were supposed to be moral beacons. To me the age range, sober, hard-working and moral aspects make sense. However, I do not understand why nurses had to be single and “plain-looking.” Today we look at nurses as nurturing mother figures and if they were single with no kids they would not have had that experience. When I saw “plain-looking” I was wondering if they saw beauty as a distraction and a curse in society among women. Did beauty correlate with sinful behavior and immoral behavior? I also find it ironic that nurses can be considered a sexual and much feminized job.–Courtney Collier

Similar to Courtney's question, I was wondering how women like Louisa May Alcott felt about being hired under those criteria? By being hired she is labeled as plain, and therefore unattractive. This fact, however, seems to have no effect on her whatsoever. I am curious about the self-esteem of women of these times. - Katie Redmiles

Also, I am shocked and impressed by which Alcott endures the suffering she sees. She describes these horrid scenes and events, but she never seems to fearful or phased. How immune to gore would women like her have been? Or is it just her writing style that prevents the true effects of the horror to show through? -Katie Redmiles

I also questioned why being a pretty nurse was frowned upon? Why was it a bad thing? – Katie Way

After reading her descriptions of the unhealthy conditions of the hospitals, I wonder if it is it known how many nurses, doctors, etc. died working in these hospitals?. -Suzannah C.

I am sure that the women who answered the call to be a nurse for the army knew that they would see some pretty bad things. However did they know how bad the conditions of the hospitals were going in? Did they know they were walking into a "pestilence-box" as Alcott put it? - Jess Hopkins

Alcott's account is interesting for a couple of different reasons. One is the fact that the first casualties that Alcott had to face came from the Battle of Fredericksburg in December, 1862. The men she was caring for may well have been wounded from shots fired from what is today campus. Second is the fact that many looked to Alcott as a mother-figure; at only 30 Alcott is somewhat discomfited by it, but in front of her were likely 20-somethings, looking for a helping hand hundreds of miles from home with horrible injuries that are hard to imagine. -Ryan Quint

She says that she hopes that she looks motherly to them, is this because she wanted to seem as non-sexual as possible or because she wanted them to trust them? - Sandra Sanchez

Alcott writes about a very structured life in such a hellish place. I couldn't imagine the fear. . . hallucinating from mercury poisoning to the sight of a civil war hospital, that barely let in any light, and had barely any ventilation. I thought it was interesting how slowy and surely her letters got a little more sad, and lastly, dinner was at 12 and supper was at 5? Did this throw anyone else off initially? --Tanner Carlton

Did men or women do a better job of handling the horrifying scenes in the hospital? Why were women expected to have certain emotions? -Melanie Houston

3 Mary Livermore, [Northern women on farm during war], 1890 -- Woloch and Major Problems readings.
I thought her view of women in the south was interesting. She says at first she did not like it, but the more she was around it she began to appreciate it. She saw that they women work because there was a need for their help. She also talks about how the women did things different way than men. She says “their work was done with more precision and nicety, and their sheaves had an artistic finish that those lacked made by men.” I know that women’s lives in the North and South were different but I guess I never thought they would think so displeasing of each other. – Katie Way

Livermore's account makes it clear that the women working in the fields considered themselves as much a part of the war effort as "[their] boys on the battle-field." The recognized the importance of continued production of the homefront to the nation's ability to wage war.--Sarah Palmer

When Livermore came across a woman working in the fields and began talking with her, she asked "You are not German? You are surely one of my own countrywomen-- American?" This just points out the stereotypes and class and ethnic issue and assumptions of the time. It was expected to find German women working outside, but not American women. - Jess Hopkins

Going off of Sarah's comment about how these women considered themselves as part of the war effort, I found it interesting that these women were doing what was considered men's work and yet they are still able to put it in the context of helping their fellow men instead of doing it for their own fulfillment. - Sandra Sanchez

4 Louticia Jackson’s letter in 1863
In a situation like Jackson’s it seems that if they slaves really wanted to they could easily take over the farm for themselves. Did this ever happen on plantations or were slaves content with the growing power they had on the plantation and control over the mistresses? And did slaves on southern plantations ever help and protect their mistresses? - Morgan H

5 Eva Jones to Mary Jones, her mother-in-law, 1865
I feel that this account really shows some of the reasons behind the animosity towards the North that existed in the South after the war. Families that used to be very well off were "utterly destitute" and barely getting by. - Jess Hopkins

As I sat reading these letters, my first inclination was that I didn't feel very bad. The south deserved some hard work after what they'd done. Slowly but surely I realized how unequipped these people had made themselves, and the women were thrown to the wolves in that respect. I especially felt bad about the meat being stolen from the smokehouse. That's pretty cold. --Tanner Carlton

Even though I have learned about the causes of the Civil War and the differences between the north and the south on several different occasions, it was not until after I read this that I had a clearer visual image of the real differences within the north and the south after the civil war. Wow!-Melanie Houston

6 Accounts of former slaves, 1865-1937
I thought it was quite interesting how all of these accounts differed. However the one account that I thought was quite striking was of the woman who stayed with her master's family three years after she was free in order to keep the children she looked after safe. How common are stories such as hers? -Kearsten Lehman

This acount seems to be slightly misleading because there was still intense racism in the North. Slavery was mainly a southern institution, but is did exist in the North and so did racism. -Amy Wallace

7 VA woman, recorded by abolitionist Laura Haviland in 1866
The women who cried with joy at the news that her master's house had fallen showed the hatred slave women felt towards their masters and particularly towards them after they committed the crime of splitting up a family. It also shows how slave women could resist their slavery through lying and other small transgression.-- Sarah Palmer

8 Harriet Tubman, from her white female biographer, Sarah Bradford, 1886
Harriet Tubman's biographer wrote her speech just like she would have heard Tubman say it. Would these biographers of freed slaves have written poor white womens' speech in the same way? --Mae D'Amico

The biographer's prejudices towards African Americans was sometimes clear in the language she told used, such as calling them "simple people" and "wretches." Therefore I wonder what Harriet Tubman thought of how her story was written by this woman or whether she acknowledged that it came from the culture of the time? -Katie Redmiles

9 Clara Burdett, to notary in Union camp in KY, March 1865
Clarissa Burdett feels as though the army owes her because her husband enlisted. She blames the army for the beating she received from her master after her husband's enlistment. Her piece made me wonder what the army could do for her? Would they have stormed the master's plantation and taken the children? Or were they too caught up in actually war that they ignored her pleas? How much did they care about the actually slaves versus how much was the war about the ideology of slavery.- Kasey Moore

11 Tennessee Woman, 1929 [TN Nanny]
I found it interesting that the white family still supported this woman each month when she came to visit. Her former master would give her money and food, and she said "I still can get anything I want if I go to them". Was this an usual practice following the war? -Dana Nordling

I wonder if the former master continued supporting this woman each month as a method of reestablishing patriarchy. The Civil War was an emasculating experience for southern men, so perhaps he was reasserting his masculinity by demonstrating that he still had the financial means and the generosity to support his former female slave. The former master's behavior displays a form of negative reciprocity. He sought to make the former slave indebted to him so he could reestablish a type of control over her. -Mary Fesak

It's sad that her former masters maintained for three years that she was not free. It makes me wonder how many slavers managed to extend their ownership by playing off their former slaves' poverty, illiteracy, and isolation from society. --Sarah Palmer

12 Mary Anderson, NC
I found Mary Anderson’s account very interesting. It really seemed that she was like a child to her masters. This account also reveals that even after slaves were free they still faced hardship. They faced so much that they returned to their masters. It was not surprising to me because the masters and slavery were certain aspects in their lives. Once they went out into the world that they did not know they realized the continued struggle. The masters also refer to them as children which may have seemed sweet but really was a shameful title and showed that they saw their slaves as children who could not be self-sufficient. –Courtney Collier

I think the masters may have sought out their former slaves because they may have still believed in antebellum notions of race, namely that blacks could not survive without the help of their masters. It was a good master's duty to take care of the slaves. The former masters may have found calling their slaves home to be spiritually redemptive after the demoralizing experience of losing the war. Regaining some of their former slaves as servants and sharecroppers provided a way for the former masters to revert to the antebellum status quo of being the "good" masters who kept helpless African Americans alive. -Mary Fesak

I enjoyed reading this account, because it reminds us what the war was for, and especially the fact that Mary Anderson was so young. At only 14, she had her whole life ahead of her after "the blackest clouds" arrived; the Federal army. Anderson's account also gives us an interesting perspective against the Lost Cause: the Federal troops in North Carolina would have been Sherman's troops passing through towards Raleigh, and like we've heard so much before, Sherman's men take the plantation's food. But rather than simply wanton stealing, Sherman's forces share the provisions with slaves and shake their hands. Lost Causers would have us believe Sherman's men marched with devilish horns poking from their heads and stole simply to steal. -Ryan Quint

14 Sarah and Lucy Chase, Teaching the Freedmen, 1866-1868
How would the efforts of these women in teaching the freedmen been taken by the local whites? Their accounts mentioned how the freedmen were eager to learn to read and write, but the reactions to them being taught were not openly discussed in these accounts. -Kearsten Lehman

In the second letter, he talks about how desegregating schools would be a terrible idea. This shows that even those that worked against slavery could still be racist and think that inequality should still exist. - Amy Wallace

15 Susie King Taylor, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp, 1902
Taylor’s account brings up many issues that we seem to still have today. It doesn’t seem as if total equality has been achieved for minorities and women in America, because many still have to fight for basic rights that they should already receive. While a lot has changed from 1902, there are still strides to be made. Her point about people not knowing how much African American women helped during the war, is also something most people probably do not think about today either. Taylor says these things should be kept in history for people but still rarely are we ever taught about it. - Morgan H.

16 Ada Bacot, Confederate Nurse, 1862
I assumed when I first started reading this account, perhaps romantically, that Ada Bacot would have some kind of interest in the Yankees that came into her hospital. That was not the case. She had to force herself to be courteous. Bacot was not the quintessence of hospitality just because she was a woman, she had an opinion about the war just like any man who was fighting. --Mae D'Amico

I was surprised at Ada's reaction to the two Yankee soldiers in the hospital. I usually think of nurses as being unbiased, but I suppose since she was a nurse during a war in which the one of the foundations of the South was under attack, I do see the reasoning (although I do not agree with it) of why she would be reluctant to help those fighting on the other side. -Suzannah C.

18 Sarah Morgan, 1863, Teen diary
Did Sarah Morgan truly understand what the Civil War was being fought over? She does not mention slavery once, only that she values Southern Rights. --Mae D'Amico

It's interesting that she mentions that not being able to fight has made her regret being a woman for the first time. I'm sure many other girls/women felt that way, much of which was not documented. Instead, she had to use her "female" skills to show patriotism and support of the South. -Suzannah C.

19 Cornelia Hancock, Union Nurse, 1863
I thought it was pretty funny that wounded soldiers were going around saying "What is an arm or leg to whipping Lee out of Penn?" I also found it interesting that the sight of blood or an amputation did not bother Cornelia, but the thought of writing home to the wives of these soldiers is something that upset her very much. -Dana Nordling

in the opening of her letter to her cousin, Cornelia states that she was out in the field, was she one of the few women who were allowed on the battlefields? I also found it interesting that although the war had been going on for nearly two years already, she was able to stay so close to her brother's infantry.--Charlotte O.

20 Caroline Kirkland, 1863, defends Northern women’s support of Northern men
This declaration actually surprised me. I know that it was a turning time for the participation of women politically, but she even states that women would still typically adopt the political beliefs of their husbands. Would she be included in this notion, women adopt the political ideology, and her understanding of what a war effort as a woman would entail?--Charlotte O.