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More than 150 years after its end, we still struggle to understand the full extent of the human toll of the Civil War and the psychological crisis it created. In Aberration of Mind, Diane Miller Sommerville offers the first book-length treatment of suicide in the South during the Civil War era, giving us insight into both white and black communities, Confederate soldiers and their families, as well as the enslaved and newly freed. With a thorough examination of the dynamics of both racial and gendered dimensions of psychological distress, Sommerville reveals how the suffering experienced by Southerners living in a war zone generated trauma that, in extreme cases, led some Southerners to contemplate or act on suicidal thoughts.

Sommerville recovers previously hidden stories of individuals exhibiting suicidal activity or aberrant psychological behavior she links to the war and its aftermath. This work adds crucial nuance to our understanding of how personal suffering shaped the way southerners viewed themselves in the Civil War era and underscores the full human costs of war.

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
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  1. Half Title, Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-viii
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  1. List of Figures
  2. pp. ix-x
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  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. xi-xvi
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  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-20
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  1. Part I. Confederate Men and Women during the Civil War
  1. Chapter 1. A Burden Too Heavy to Bear: War Trauma, Suicide, and Confederate Soldiers
  2. pp. 23-48
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  1. Chapter 2. A Dark Doom to Dread: Women, Suicide, and Suffering on the Confederate Homefront
  2. pp. 49-82
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  1. Part II. African American Southerners in Slavery and Freedom
  1. Chapter 3. De Lan’ of Sweet Dreams: Suffering and Suicide among the Enslaved
  2. pp. 85-119
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  1. Chapter 4. Somethin’ Went Hard agin Her Mind: Suffering, Suicide, and Emancipation
  2. pp. 120-148
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  1. Part III. Confederate Men and Women in the Aftermath of War
  1. Chapter 5. The Accursed Ills I Cannot Bear: Confederate Veterans, Suicide, and Suffering in the Defeated South
  2. pp. 151-178
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  1. Chapter 6. The Distressed State of the Country: Confederate Men and the Navigation of Economic, Political, and Emotional Ruin in the Postwar South
  2. pp. 179-196
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  1. Chapter 7. All Is Dark before Me
  2. pp. 197-234
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  1. Chapter 8. Cumberer of the Earth: The Secularization of Suffering and Suicide Conclusion
  2. pp. 235-254
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  1. Conclusion
  2. pp. 255-262
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  1. Notes
  2. pp. 263-364
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  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 365-416
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  1. Index
  2. pp. 417-430
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