Stepdaughters of History: Southern Women and the American Civil War by Catherine Clinton (review)

When Catherine Clinton received an invitation to deliver the seventy-third annual Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History at Louisiana State University, she was in the midst of several projects. Faced with the prospect of choosing just one to share, she ultimately decided that since "there was just the slightest hint that I might want to offer lectures on the topic of women … how could I resist revisiting the topic of southern women and the Civil War?" (p. xiii). This book is not simply the product of those lectures; it is also the result of a lifetime of research and thought on the topic and reveals a wartime female experience that was anything but monolithic.

"I believe in taking every opportunity to afford women a platform, a place at the table—even if we don't like the menu," writes Clinton in her preface, warning that the book to come is not simply a reflection on the state of the field (p. xvii). The first chapter focuses on elite white women, the "band of sisters" who sacrificed for the Confederate war effort, wrote their way through the war, and often embraced blind patriotism (p. xv). Clinton traces the wartime experiences and writings of familiar nineteenth-century names including Mary Boykin Chesnut, Winnie Davis, Louisa McCord, Sarah Morgan, Sallie Pickett, Kate Stone, and Augusta Jane Evans Wilson. Clinton maintains that "the blood of the lash could not be whitewashed away by even the most eloquent of memoirists, and yet the band of sisters would die trying" (p. 39).

In her next chapter Clinton turns to "impermissible patriots," white women defined by "their defiance rather than their accomplishments" (p. 41). These women tested gender norms and challenged societal expectations even as they expressed deep loyalty to the Confederacy. A driving force in this chapter is Loreta Janeta Velazquez, a woman who published a memoir claiming she fought as a Confederate officer, and historians' mixed treatment of her tale. This chapter is particularly thought provoking as Clinton manages to tie topics like the need for research on nineteenth-century dress reform to recent gendered language about Hillary Clinton and pantsuits. "Whatever their political and personal agendas," Catherine Clinton concludes, "scholars might reframe and recast Confederate women's defiant careers in more balanced terms, in order to recognize women who seized the opportunity to serve their country" (p. 74).

The final chapter analyzes the history and implications of "Mammy," a "carefully cultivated" image replacing the real African American women who fought for and redefined freedom (p. 100). Clinton argues, "African American women have been absent not only from historical accounts of the Civil War but from any appreciation of its legacy for black women and the incredible transformations wrought" (p. 84). In addition to discussing the debate over which woman should appear on the twenty-dollar bill, vintage racist collectibles, the use of the term Mammy in Ireland, and the #SayHerName Twitter campaign, this chapter studies the conflict between recognizing black women as historical actors and addressing "the mythical symbols of black womanhood whites have projected" (p. 93). Clinton cautions scholars against "replacing a caricature with an emblem" by creating historical work that presents "emancipated slaves as indefatigable heroes" without human flaw (p. 102).

Clinton's writing is accessible and conversational, challenging readers with admonishments like, "We must not hold women in the past hostage to historical standards that keep them in the sidebars and footnotes, only including those who achieve status 'within a man's world'" (p. xviii). At under 150 pages this book is by no means exhaustive, though the footnotes offer a fairly comprehensive map of where this field stands. Clinton reminds us of the significant work that has been done as well as the significant work that remains to be done in original research, textbook publications, and college lectures. Those...