| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 229 words from this article are provided below; about 405 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Masterful Women: Slaveholding Widows from the American Revolution through the Civil War. By Kirsten E. Wood. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. xvi, 281 pp. Cloth, $49.95, isbn 0-8078-2859-9. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-8078-5528-6.)
In this interesting and much-needed study of slaveholding widows, Kirsten E. Wood shows how widows in the South functioned in a society that has been regarded as intensely patriarchal. These women's experiences defied much about that male-dominated society. Wood's rich sources focus on white women in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, with an occasional foray into Tennessee. She touches on a number of important themes: widows' interactions with immediate and extended family members; dealings with slaves; disposing of inherited property; involvement in the world of politics; and engagement in other activities that pushed them well beyond the confines of home and plantation.	1
Wood argues that widows had no choice but to challenge some expectations that society imposed on females, doing so rarely to prove their strength and independence but mainly to survive and sometimes even to thrive as single women and heads of household. They learned how to assert themselves and function in the masculine world of commerce, but, as Wood argues, at the same time they used their sense of dependency, ladyhood, and an exalted sense of class to fashion a life for themselves and their families.	. . .

There are about 405 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.