Virginia Women: Their Lives and Times, Volume 1

by Cynthia A. Kierner (Editor), Sandra Gioia Treadway (Editor), Catherine Allgor (Contribution by), E. Susan Barber (Contribution by), Mary C. Ferrari (Contribution by)

Overview

Virginia Women is the first of two volumes exploring the history of Virginia women through the lives of exemplary and remarkable individuals. This collection of seventeen essays, written by established and emerging scholars, recovers the stories and voices of a diverse group of women, from the seventeenth century through the Civil War era. Placing their subjects in their larger historical contexts, the authors show how the experiences of Virginia women varied by race, class, age, and marital status, and also across both space and time.

Some essays examine the lives of well-known women—such as First Lady Dolley Madison—from a new perspective. Others introduce readers to relatively obscure historical figures: the convicted witch Grace Sherwood; the colonial printer Clementina Rind; Harriet Hemings, the enslaved daughter of Thomas Jefferson. Essays on the frontier heroine Mary Draper Ingles and the Civil War spy Elizabeth Van Lew examine the real women behind the legends. Altogether, the essays in this collection offer readers an engaging and personal window onto the experiences of women in the Old Dominion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820342634
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	04/01/2015
Series:	Southern Women: Their Lives and Times Series , #12
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

CATHERINE KERRISON is a professor of history at Villanova University. She is author of Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America and Claiming the Pen: Women and Intellectual Life in the Early American South.

KRISTALYN MARIE SHEFVELAND is an associate professor of history at the University of Southern Indiana. She has been a contributing essayist to Virginia Women: Their Lives and Times (Georgia); The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment; and Beyond Two Worlds: Critical Conversations on Language and Power in Native North America.

Cynthia A. Kierner (Editor)
CYNTHIA A. KIERNER is a professor of history at George Mason University.

Sandra Gioia Treadway (Editor)
SANDRA GIOIA TREADWAY is the director of the Library of Virginia.

Table of Contents

Introduction Cynthia A. Kierner Sandra Gioia Treadway 1

Grace Sherwood: The Virginia Witch Cynthia A. Kierner 11

Cockacoeske and Sarah Harris Stegge Grendon: Bacons Rebellion and the Roles of Women Kristalyn M. Shefveland 33

Jane Webb and Her Family Life Stories and the Law in Early Virginia Terri L. Snyder 55

Clementina Rind: Widowed Printer of Williamsburg Martha J. King 74

Sarah Jerdone: Negotiating Revolution Linda L. Sturtz 95

Anne Henry Christian: Chronicling Family and Business on the Revolutionary Frontier Gail S. Terry 116

Mary Draper Ingles: A Survivor in Her Time and a Legend Ever Since Mary C. Ferrari 138

Elizabeth Henry Campbell Russell: Champion of Faith in the Early Republic Jon Kukla 160

Elizabeth Jacquelin Ambler Brent Carrington: A Founder of the Female Humane Association for Orphan Girls in Richmond Sarah Hand Meacham 180

Dolley Madison: A Case Study in Southern Style Catherine Allgor 201

Harriet Hemings: Daughter of the President's Slave Catherine Kerrison 222

Edy Turner: The Nottoway Indians' "Female Chief" Helen C. Rountree 244

Ann R. Page and Mary L. Custis: From Annfield and Arlington to Africa, with Love Deborah A. Lee 260

Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge Thomas Jefferson's Granddaughter in New England and Beyond Lisa A. Francavilla 283

Elizabeth Van Lew: Southern Lady, Union Spy Elizabeth R. Varon 305

Antonia Ford Willard: Southern Belle, Yankee Wife Michelle A. Krowl 323

Sally Louisa Tompkins: Confederate Healer E. Susan Barber 344

Contributors 363

Index 367

Editorial Reviews

Each essay is skillfully written and demonstrates how the imaginative use of sometime obscure original sources can bring life to often voiceless women who lived on the margins of society and how even well-known women can be explored in new and creative ways

The Journal of Southern Literature - Joyce L. Broussard

This volume is particularly interesting because it examines nineteen women in seventeen essays during a time when sources for most of these women are difficult to find. Collectively, these authors do a wonderful job of gathering available records and reconstructing the social and political culture structures surrounding their lives to provide readers with new perspectives on historical narratives.

Virginia Magazine