Posted in Lincoln Women and Gender

NY Times Reviews New Michael Burlingame Book on the Lincoln Marriage

Abe Lincoln and Mary Todd were the sort of power couple we now recognize in FDR and Eleanor or Bill and Hil. No major biography…

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Posted in Labor Movement Women and Gender

Reconstructing American Womanhood: War and Change in Women’s Lives

We sometimes mistakenly associate the Civil War and Reconstruction Eras with the “Ideals of Victorian Womanhood,” as though all women sought to nestle inside of…

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Posted in Education White Supremacy White Supremacy Apologetics White Terror Women and Gender

Say Her Name: Julia Hayden, Black Teacher/White Death

Julia Hayden was a seventeen year old set to the exciting task of beginning her career as a teacher of young Black children in Tennessee….

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Posted in Lost Cause Memory of Reconstruction Monuments Movies White Supremacy White Supremacy Apologetics Women and Gender

“Gone With the Wind” Is a Confederate Monument Says Historian Nina Silber

Historian Nina Silber has an interesting article in today’s Washington Post titled ‘Gone With the Wind’ is also a Confederate monument, but on film instead…

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Posted in Slavery White Supremacy Women and Gender

2020 Pulitzer Prize in History Goes to Book on Freedwoman Who Sued Her Enslaver During Reconstruction

The Pulitzer Prize in history was awarded to W. Caleb McDaniel for his new book about slavery and reparations during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Sweet…

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Posted in White Terror Women and Gender

Courageous Journalist Ida B. Wells Honored by Pulitzer Prize Committee for Struggle Against Lynching

Ida B. Wells was one of the strongest voices for Black freedom during the Jim Crow Era. An outstanding journalist, she campaigned against lynching alongside…

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Posted in U.S. Grant Women and Gender

President Grant Appoints Elizabeth Van Lew Postmaster for Richmond & Gen. Longstreet Collector of the Port of NOLA March, 1869

Elizabeth Van Lew ran a Union spy ring in Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital. James Longstreet was a Confederate general commanding a corps of infantry…

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Posted in Memory of Reconstruction Women and Gender

When the Daughters of the Confederacy Wanted a Statue Dedicated to “Loyal Mammies”

The United Daughters of the Confederacy were one of the most effective women’s organizations in the South in the early 20th Century. They fostered the…

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Posted in African Americans Emancipation & Reconstruction End of War Refugees Women and Gender

Harriet Jacobs Describes Her Relief Work Among Liberated Former Slaves Near Savannah in 1866

Illustration: Freedpeople in Charleston from Frank Leslie’s April 25, 1865. Harriet Jacobs is today well-known as the author of Incidents in the Life of a…

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Posted in Immigrants Women and Gender

When Louisa May Alcott Endorsed “No Irish Need Apply”

Like many of her background, Louisa May Alcott had strong prejudices against Irish immigrants. While we remember her for Little Women, Alcott was a frequent…

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