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Reviews
| Scarlett's Sisters: Young Women in the Old South, by Anya Jabour. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press: 2007. 400 pages. $39.95, cloth.
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| Jabour points out in her introduction that, despite the determined and considerable efforts of social historians to dethrone Scarlett O'Hara from her position as the preeminent embodiment of the Southern lady in the public imagination, she nevertheless has remained the model. In this book, she contends that Scarlett never truly reflected antebellum Southern ladies, although the Civil War caused the young women who came of age during that period to undertake activities hitherto proscribed for them, roles possibly defined by Scarlett in Gone With the Wind. Jabour's book was ten years in the making. It is built on extensive diaries, memoirs, letters, and even photographs. Yet, despite this exhaustive scholarly underpinning, the book is not a dry scholarly tome because the author allows her informants to enliven her presentation. In numerous excerpts from these intimate sources, Jabour follows young girls of 15 as they mature into Southern ladies at 25. Very conscious of the expectations of society, few actively resisted these constraints before the war, but as she shows, the times were as important as place, race, and class in determining their lives—lives which were quite different from those of their Northern counterparts. While currently, there are some studies in the historical literature that examine males' coming-of age, there is little examination of females' coming-of age experiences. By looking at this particular generation of women, scholars like Jabour are able to sort through some of the contradictions that exist in the current historical literature regarding Southern women and feminism in the New South. |
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Very important in the making of a Southern lady was the boarding school experience. Here, young women formed very close friendships and bonds with other women. They often tried to sustain these connections through letters once they left school. While at school, these girls strove for good grades, and relatives were invited to witness final exam presentations. For some women, the thought of giving up their intellectual pursuits was difficult and they wished they could continue "blessed singlehood." The next phase of maturing was being a Southern belle, during which the girl entered society as a young woman. She went to numerous social gatherings where she tried to meet as many eligible men as possible. Jabour argues that many women tried to prolong this period as long as possible, because they realized how much independence they would lose through marriage. Proposals could be accepted or rejected. Women corresponded frequently with prospective beaux and hoped that the ideals of romantic love would temper the control their future husbands would exert over them. But marriage was inevitable and often traumatic. Young women often left their families and sometimes their region as their husbands struck out to new territories. They had to manage plantations and that usually meant managing slave labor as well. Lucky women had mothers who came to assist for a time, whereas others struggled through trial and error. Jabour points out that one of the paradoxes of Southern ladies was that "they were simultaneously privileged, and oppressed, powerful and powerless" (p.203). Motherhood marked the end of any resistance to their fate, and Southern women were well aware of the dangers of giving birth. In 1850, Southern women had twice the maternal mortality rate of Northern women (p. 225). Yet motherhood became an important source of identity, and Southern ladies took their duties seriously. |
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Having described this pre-war pattern, Jabour turns to the impact of the war. Young women were often more ardent in support of the Confederacy than their parents. For them, the War was about freedom and independence. Though it brought hardships, it also added a meaning and purpose to lives that previously had been lacking. Jabour claims that by looking at the lives of "Scarlett's sisters," one can see the birth of Southern feminism. They faced a new social reality and they had acquired the skills enabling them to support themselves. After the War, they were no longer willing to accept the old role of dependence but would help forge a new social order for themselves and the region. In sum, this book is engaging and teachers of history can perhaps reach their own students better by showing how other young women matured during one of the most difficult periods in our nation's history. |
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| Anne Arundel Community College, Maryland |
Elizabeth Kessel |
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