South Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times, Volume 2

by Marjorie Julian Spruill (Editor), Valinda W. Littlefield (Editor), Joan Marie Johnson (Editor), Barbara Bellows (Contribution by), Ronald E. Butchart (Contribution by)

Overview

The biographical essays in this volume provide new insights into the various ways that South Carolina women asserted themselves in their state and illuminate the tension between tradition and change that defined the South from the Civil War through the Progressive Era. As old rules—including gender conventions that severely constrained southern women—were dramatically bent if not broken, these women carved out new roles for themselves and others.

The volume begins with a profile of Laura Towne and Ellen Murray, who founded the Penn School on St. Helena Island for former slaves. Subsequent essays look at such women as the five Rollin sisters, members of a prominent black family who became passionate advocates for women’s rights during Reconstruction; writer Josephine Pinckney, who helped preserve African American spirituals and explored conflicts between the New and Old South in her essays and novels; and Dr. Matilda Evans, the first African American woman licensed to practice medicine in the state. Intractable racial attitudes often caused women to follow separate but parallel paths, as with Louisa B. Poppenheim and Marion B. Wilkinson. Poppenheim, who was white, and Wilkinson, who was black, were both driving forces in the women’s club movement. Both saw clubs as a way not only to help women and children but also to showcase these positive changes to the wider nation. Yet the two women worked separately, as did the white and black state federations of women’s clubs.

Often mixing deference with daring, these women helped shape their society through such avenues as education, religion, politics, community organizing, history, the arts, science, and medicine. Women in the mid- and late twentieth century would build on their accomplishments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820329383
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	01/01/2010
Series:	Southern Women: Their Lives and Times Series , #6
Edition description:	Volume 2
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

JOAN MARIE JOHNSON is a lecturer in women’s history and southern history at Northeastern Illinois University. She is the cofounder and codirector of the Newberry Seminar on Women and Gender at the Newberry Library in Chicago and is the author of Southern Ladies, New Women.

MICHELE GRIGSBY COFFEY is an instructor of history at the University of Memphis. Her work has been published in the edited collection South Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times (Georgia), Louisiana History, and in the Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History.

JOAN MARIE JOHNSON is a lecturer in women’s history and southern history at Northeastern Illinois University. She is the cofounder and codirector of the Newberry Seminar on Women and Gender at the Newberry Library in Chicago and is the author of Southern Ladies, New Women.

GISELLE ROBERTS is a research associate in the department of history at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. She is the author of The Confederate Belle.

Marjorie Julian Spruill (Editor)
MARJORIE JULIAN SPRUILL is a professor of history at the University of South Carolina.

Valinda W. Littlefield (Editor)
VALINDA W. LITTLEFIELD is an assistant professor of history at the University of South Carolina.

Joan Marie Johnson (Editor)
JOAN MARIE JOHNSON is a lecturer in women’s history and southern history at Northeastern Illinois University. She is the cofounder and codirector of the Newberry Seminar on Women and Gender at the Newberry Library in Chicago and is the author of Southern Ladies, New Women.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction Marjorie Julian Spruill Valinda W. Littlefield Joan Marie Johnson 1

Laura Towne and Ellen Murray: Northern Expatriates and the Foundations of Black Education in South Carolina, 1862-1908 Ronald E. Butchart 12

Martha Fell Schofield and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright: Women Founders of South Carolina African American Schools Larry D. Watson 31

The Rollin Sisters: Black Women in Reconstruction South Carolina Willard B. Gatewood 50

Sarah Morgan Dawson: A New Southern Woman in Postwar Charleston Giselle Roberts 68

Sallie Chapin: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union and Reconciliation after the Civil War Joan Marie Johnson 87

Louisa B. Poppenheim and Marion B. Wilkinson: The Parallel Lives of Black and White Clubwomen Joan Marie Johnson 105

Lucy Dugas Tillman: Child Custody, Motherhood, and the Power of a Populist Demagogue Michele Grigsby Coffey 128

Eulalie Salley and Emma Dunovant: A Complementary Pair of Suffragists James O. Farmer 144

Anita Pollitzer: A South Carolina Advocate for Equal Rights Amy Thompson Mccandless 166

Irene Goldsmith Kohn: An Assimilated "New South" Daughter and Jewish Women's Activism in Early Twentieth-Century South Carolina Belinda Friedman Gerge1 190

Susan Pringle Frost: Historic Preservation in Charleston and Gendered Identity in the Emerging New South Stephanie E. Yuhl 215

Josephine Pinckney: Literary Interpreter of the Modern South Barbara L. Bellows 234

Alice Ravenel Huger Smith and Elizabeth O'Neill Verner: Champions of the Charleston Renaissance Martha R. Severens 249

Matilda Evans: Health Care Activism of a Black Woman Physician Darlene Clark Hine 266

Notes on Contributors 293

Index 297

Editorial Reviews

“While the stories of towering figures like Septima Clark and Jean Hoefer Toal will ring familiar, most of this volume reveals women working in schools, farms, factories, and an astonishing array of voluntary associations to improve education and health, challenge racial discrimination, and open opportunities for women. South Carolina is a better place because of their unsung efforts, and their compelling stories challenge us to reframe our understanding of the twentieth century. This much needed book opens that possibility.”—Sara Evans, author of Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America

"These wonderfully diverse stories of the lives and works of South Carolina women will instruct, surprise, and inspire readers of all kinds. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand our common past."—Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Julia Cherry Spruill Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“My hat is off to the editors and authors of South Carolina Women. They have done an enormous service to anyone who is interested in South Carolina history, women’s history, and southern history. . . This book is an excellent resource for scholars and students of southern and South Carolina history and politics, American studies, African-American studies, and women’s studies.”—Karen M. Kedrowski, Journal of Southern Religion

“The essays in this book individually and collectively bring to life a long history of female activism and agency and make a valuable contribution to the narrative of southern women’s efforts to shape the world around them. Volume 3 of South Carolina Women proves that these notable and exceptional female figures, rather than stand passively on the sidelines, claimed a space in the canon of American history by tirelessly constructing a better world for generations of women in the state and the nation.”—Victoria E. Ott, Journal of Southern History

From the Publisher