In the Age of Revolution; how did American women conceive their lives and marital obligations? By examining the attitudes and behaviors surrounding the contentious issues of family; contraception; abortion; sexuality; beauty; and identity; Susan E. Klepp demonstrates that many women--rural and urban; free and enslaved--began to radically redefine motherhood. They asserted; or attempted to assert; control over their bodies; their marriages; and their daughters' opportunities.Late-eighteenth-century American women were among the first in the world to disavow the continual childbearing and large families that had long been considered ideal. Liberty; equality; and heartfelt religion led to new conceptions of virtuous; rational womanhood and responsible parenthood. These changes can be seen in falling birthrates; in advice to friends and kin; in portraits; and in a gradual; even reluctant; shift in men's opinions. Revolutionary-era women redefined femininity; fertility; family; and their futures by limiting births. Women might not have won the vote in the new Republic; they might not have gained formal rights in other spheres; but; Klepp argues; there was a women's revolution nonetheless.
#1153717 in Books University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill 2005-08-29Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x .44 x 5.98l; .52 #File Name: 0807856592192 pages
Review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Good ObservationsBy Sid DowellCampbell makes a compelling argument in her differentiation between Sherman's march South to the sea which was relatively tame in comparison to his march North from the sea that was indicative of Total War or the Hard Hand of War as Grimsley calls it. Campbell's observations regarding the attitude of slaves during the occupation does not always mesh with the brutality often expressed by Douglas; Jacobs; and other slaves that escaped to the North prior to the war. Campbell observes that many of the slaves viewed Northern soldiers with greater contempt than that which they held their Southern owners. This book does raise serious questions to the amount of sensationalism that accompanied some of these earlier inflammatory writings.8 of 19 people found the following review helpful. When Sherman Marched to the Sea:Residtance on the Confederate Home FrontBy Barbara And Byron SkinnerThis book is what happens when 21st. Century feminist thinking trys to layer itself over the 19th. Century and the American Civil War.Basicly the book deals with the abuse of white southern women; black women and the wanton destruction of property by General Sherman's campaign through the Southern heart land in 1864. Using limited sources the author builds a case of excessive violence; rape and destruction of property. Gen. Sherman's campaign is well documented and know to historians and although there obviously were examples of what Prof. Campbell described it was not the normal standard of behaviour of Gen. Sherman's Army of 61K.I have no doubt that the examples given in this text are factualy true but the historicaly records as well as personal diaries and letters that have survived strongly indicate that these atrocities toward Souther civilians or slave were the norm.2 of 3 people found the following review helpful. The book is too short; the subject worth reading about.By lyndonbrechtThis is a fascinating subject: women on the home front facing invasion by a dreaded enemy. Most of the men were in the Confederate forces (or dead or in hiding from the draft). Campbell's source materials include letters and journals. This book is entirely too short.Sherman is the most reviled figure on that war; still the object of something like disgust and hate on the part of people who keep rewriting history; claiming that slavery wasn't so bad. Get over it people; Sherman outgeneraled his opponents and his campaign was fierce and harsh--was he supposed to say "Please" and "Thank you" from a regime based on slavery and maintained by brute force?It seems that some of these women were among the authors of the legend of Sherman being an uncivilized brute. Campbell's book gives these women a greater presence than most histories do; they were not just the victims; they had voices and did not hesitate to use them. They were in the way of an invasion; but remained feisty and unrepentant. There was almost certainly abuse of women by the Union army; but the subject is little known and memoirs sometimes recall that Union soldiers were unexpectedly gentlemanly.
