Civil War :: essays research papers

The genteel fight drastically altered American history. It would be difficult to findanyone who would differ with the above state workforcet. But, did the cultivated war affect thelives of Southern women as drastically? In my opinion, it did. Many people fail to realizethat the outbreak of the civil war changed the lives of all Southern women - not justslaves. The women of the Confederacy, black and white, recondite and poor, would see theirlives changed forever as a result of the war that ensued surrounded by the North and the Southduring the years of 1861 to 1865. The fact is, that even though men were doing thefighting, the women were faced with the more intimidating aspects of the war - newchallenges, depravations, unforeseen dangers, and more or less importantly the uncertainty oftheir futures. The war required complete mobilization of resources and with tierce out offour men away at war1, there were many an(prenominal) gaps for Southern women to fill. (Our Needles.)The affects of war were widespread and varied by age, location, and marital status, only when the clearest and nearly significant delineations were by class and race. As is the casewith intimately national crisiss, the war seemed to have an almost leveling affect on socialstatus - everyone shared a common hardship and suffering. The the true is though thatwomen who owned slaves faced much harsher realities of war than those who did not. Forslaveholding women, the civil war represented an evil that was slowly diminishing theirprivileges and affluence, and one that would lastly reshape their entire socialidentities. While the war disrupted the economy, as is normal, the bigger issue at hand wasits attack on slavery. This was most crucial, because the admixture of a slave laborsystem was synonymous with the deterioration of wealth for many southern families.