The Enclosed Garden

Women and Community in the Evangelical South, 1830-1900

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Gender Studies, Women&, History, Americas, United States
Cover of the book The Enclosed Garden by Jean E. Friedman, The University of North Carolina Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jean E. Friedman ISBN: 9781469639451
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press Publication: October 6, 2017
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press Language: English
Author: Jean E. Friedman
ISBN: 9781469639451
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication: October 6, 2017
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Language: English

The southern women's reform movement emerged late in the nineteenth century, several decades behind the formation of the northern feminist movement. The Enclosed Garden explains this delay by examining the subtle and complex roots of women's identity to disclose the structures that defined -- and limited -- female autonomy in the South.

Jean Friedman demonstrates how the evangelical communities, a church-directed, kin-dominated society, linked plantation, farm, and town in the predominantly rural South. Family networks and the rural church were the princple influences on social relationships defining sexual, domestic, marital, and work roles. Friedman argues that the church and family, more than the institution of slavery, inhibited the formation of an antebellum feminist movement. The Civil War had little effect on the role of southern women because the family system regrouped and returned to the traditional social structure. Only with the onset of modernization in the late nineteenth century did conditions allow for the beginnings of feminist reform, and it began as an urban movement that did not challenge the family system.

Friedman arrives at a new understanding of the evolution of Victorian southern women's identity by comparing the experiences of black women and white women as revealed in church records, personal letters, and slave narratives. Through a unique use of dream analysis, Friedman also shows that the dreams women described in their diaries reveal their struggle to resolve internal conflicts about their families and the church community. This original study provides a new perspective on nineteenth-century southern social structure, its consequences for women's identity and role, and the ways in which the rural evangelical kinship system resisted change.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The southern women's reform movement emerged late in the nineteenth century, several decades behind the formation of the northern feminist movement. The Enclosed Garden explains this delay by examining the subtle and complex roots of women's identity to disclose the structures that defined -- and limited -- female autonomy in the South.

Jean Friedman demonstrates how the evangelical communities, a church-directed, kin-dominated society, linked plantation, farm, and town in the predominantly rural South. Family networks and the rural church were the princple influences on social relationships defining sexual, domestic, marital, and work roles. Friedman argues that the church and family, more than the institution of slavery, inhibited the formation of an antebellum feminist movement. The Civil War had little effect on the role of southern women because the family system regrouped and returned to the traditional social structure. Only with the onset of modernization in the late nineteenth century did conditions allow for the beginnings of feminist reform, and it began as an urban movement that did not challenge the family system.

Friedman arrives at a new understanding of the evolution of Victorian southern women's identity by comparing the experiences of black women and white women as revealed in church records, personal letters, and slave narratives. Through a unique use of dream analysis, Friedman also shows that the dreams women described in their diaries reveal their struggle to resolve internal conflicts about their families and the church community. This original study provides a new perspective on nineteenth-century southern social structure, its consequences for women's identity and role, and the ways in which the rural evangelical kinship system resisted change.

More books from The University of North Carolina Press

Cover of the book The William R. Ferris Reader, Omnibus E-book by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book A More Civil War by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book Southern Cultures by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book Ida B. Wells-Barnett and American Reform, 1880-1930 by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book Shrimp by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book The Commerce Clause under Marshall, Taney, and Waite by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book Witness for Freedom by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book The Voyage of the Slave Ship Hare by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book Tales from the Haunted South by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book Traders and Raiders by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book Tropical Babylons by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book Many Minds, One Heart by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book Well-Read Lives by Jean E. Friedman
Cover of the book Seneca's Drama by Jean E. Friedman
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy