A Family of Women: The Carolina Petigrus in Peace and War

by Jane H. Pease, William H. Pease

Overview

The often-stereotyped belles and matrons of the nineteenth-century South emerge as diverse personalities in this compelling account of three generations of women from a South Carolina family whose fate rose and fell with the fortunes of the state. Through vivid, interwoven life stories, the book offers a unique perspective on how these women conducted their lives, shared personal triumphs and defeats, endured the deprivations and despair of civil war, and experienced a social revolution.

A Family of Women focuses on the female descendants of Louise Gibert Pettigrew (later changed to Petigru), who rose from upcountry obscurity to privileged prominence in Charleston and on low country plantations, where they variously flourished as belles, managed large households, shocked society with their unconventionality, educated their children, endured troubled marriages, and maintained close family ties. Using the letters, diaries, novels, and memoirs of the Petigru women and the material culture surrounding them, the authors weave a complex story of women well worth knowing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469613802
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	01/01/2014
Edition description:	1
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jane H. Pease is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Maine and an associate in history at the College of Charleston.

William H. Pease is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Maine and an associate in history at the College of Charleston.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Editorial Note
Prologue


Part I The Rise of the Petigrus

1 Establishing the Petigru Connection
2 Begetting Offspring
3 Managing Complex Households
4 Educating the Young
5 Marrying for Money
6 Reigning as Belles
7 Surviving Miserable Marriages
8 Governing at Home
9 Marrying for Love
10 Reflecting Power and Wealth
11 Dealing with Public Issues


Part II The War Years

12 The War Comes
13 The Early War Years on the Home Front
14 The Repercussions from the Battlefield
15 The Roof Tree Falls
16 Life Goes On
17 The War Drags to a Close


Part III The Long Years After

18 The Despair of Defeat
19 The Return to the Plantation
20 The Return to the City
21 The Luck of the Allstons
22 The Pain and Joy of Autonomy


Epilogue
Appendix: Genealogical Charts
Notes
Bibliographical Essay
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

If the truism that fact is more interesting than fiction needs proof, it is to be found in A Family of Women.—Journal of Southern History

This book . . . seems destined to bring the history of southern women the wide readership it has long deserved. . . . All readers will be grateful for the detailed genealogical charts the authors have provided to trace the complicated connections among this fascinating 'family of women.'—Journal of American History

This book is a good read. . . . Jane H. and William H. Pease have done a remarkable job of constructing a lucid and engaging narrative.—American Historical Review

The exceedingly rich detail [the Peases] weave into their narrative will enable other historians to draw their own conclusions on how issues of race, gender, and class impacted on the lives of plantation women before and after the cataclysmic divide of the Civil War. . . . The story the Peases relate is a fascinating one, and a very useful epilogue pulls together many of its threads.—Journal of the Early Republic

A Family of Women exemplifies the value of a thoughtful, detailed description of the 'world' that Southern women made before, during, and after the Civil War. Conveying a wealth of information, carefully nuanced in personal observations drawn from the Petigru family's extensive correspondence, the Peases provide a compelling portrait of the lives of white southern women in one extended family over several generations.—-American Studies

A fascinating story of devotion and loss, beautifully told. . . . Scholars and general readers will find A Family of Women a valuable contribution to the chronicle of the Southern past. By tracing the Petigru women's lives throughout the nineteenth century, the book has a scope that clearly reveals social change, especially that brought about by the Civil War.—Civil War History

The Peases bring a mature understanding of human relationships as well as experience in southern sources to illuminate life courses (e.g., marriage, childbirth, child rearing, plantation roles) taken by these women linked by blood and marriage.—Choice

Lovers of Charleston and the Lowcountry should derive both great pleasure and sadness in reading about the triumphs and tragedies of these Petigru women, and every local reenactor and tour guide ought to be compelled to read it.—Charleston Post and Courier

A significant contribution to our understanding of elite Southern women and of the diversity and adversity that characterized their lives. . . . Indeed, it is the interactions not only among the women of this family, but between the men and women which make the Peases' extensive research so compelling and significant.—Times Literary Supplement

Historians of antebellum southern women will find that this detailed study of the women in one extended upper class family provides a splendid opportunity to test their favorite hypotheses. Other southerners will find it a very good read.—Anne Firor Scott, Duke University

Editorial Reviews

This family biography draws on the letters and diaries of three generations of Petigru women to trace their changing fortunes throughout much of the 19th century. While the Civil War profoundly influenced their lives, it is clear that the antebellum period was not always idyllic. Precarious finances, early marriage, frequent childbearing, and various social constraints all had an impact. Several of these women, for example, were forced to assume male management roles or become economically self-sufficient. Historians Jane and William Pease have written several books on the Charleston area, among them a biography of the namesake of this family, James Louis Petigru, Southern Conservative, Southern Dissenter. Recommended for academic and large public libraries as well as women's studies collections.--Patricia A. Beaber, Coll. of New Jersey Lib., Ewing Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Jane H. and William H. Pease have done a remarkable job of constructing a lucid and engaging narrative.

American Historical Review

The story the Peases relate is a fascinating one, and a very useful epilogue pulls together many of its threads.

Journal of the Early Republic

The Peases provide a compelling portrait of the lives of white southern women in one extended family over several generations.

American Studies

Scholars and general readers will find A Family of Women a valuable contribution to the chronicle of the Southern past.

Civil War History

A significant contribution to our understanding of elite Southern women and of the diversity and adversity that characterized their lives.

Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher