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Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Gettysburg College

Student Publications

Civil War

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in History

Military Occupation, Sexual Violence, And The Struggle Over Masculinity In The Early Reconstruction South, Cameron T. Sauers Oct 2020

Military Occupation, Sexual Violence, And The Struggle Over Masculinity In The Early Reconstruction South, Cameron T. Sauers

Student Publications

This inquiry centers on the way that sexual violence became the terrain upon which the struggles of the postemancipation and early Reconstruction South were waged. At the start of the Civil War, Confederate discourse played upon the fears of sexual violence engulfing the South with the invasion of Union armies. The nightmare never came to Southern households; rape was infrequently reported. However, Southern women, especially if they were African American, were subjected to sexual violence, which likely increased as the war dragged on. Sexual violence includes, but is not limited to, rape. Destruction of clothing, invasion of domestic spaces, and …


The Ideal And The Real: Southern Plantation Women Of The Civil War, Kelly H. Crosby Oct 2014

The Ideal And The Real: Southern Plantation Women Of The Civil War, Kelly H. Crosby

Student Publications

Southern plantation women experienced a shift in identity over the course of the Civil War. Through the diaries of Catherine Edmondston and Eliza Fain, historians note the discrepancy between the ideal and real roles women had while the men were off fighting. Unique perspectives and hidden voices in their writings offer valuable insight into the life of plantation women and the hybrid identity they gained despite the Confederate loss.


A Changing Force: The American Civil War, Women, And Victorian Culture, Megan E. Mcnish Apr 2014

A Changing Force: The American Civil War, Women, And Victorian Culture, Megan E. Mcnish

Student Publications

The American Civil War thrust Victorian society into a maelstrom. The war disrupted a culture that was based on polite behavior and repression of desires. The emphasis on fulfilling duties sent hundreds of thousands of men into the ranks of Union and Confederate armies. Without the patriarchs of their families, women took up previously unexplored roles for the majority of their sex. In both the North and the South, females were compelled to do physical labor in the fields, runs shops, and manage slaves, all jobs which previously would have been occupied almost exclusively by men. These shifts in society, …