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"You All Must Do The Best You Can" : The Civil War Widows Of Brunswick County, Virginia, 1860-1920, Jennifer Lynn Gross

Master's Theses

This study focuses upon the life experiences of the 70 Civil War widows of Brunswick County, Virginia, a rural, predominantly agricultural community. The death of a husband, particularly in a male-oriented society such as the nineteenth century South, forced his widow to cope not only with her grief but also with new household, financial, and family responsibilities as well as a new identity as a lone woman, a social category defined by the loss of the central source of identity and financial support experienced during married life. Factors such as age, family situation, community of residence, sources of emotional and …