The Big House after Slavery
Virginia Plantation Families and Their Postbellum Domestic Experiment
- 296 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
The Big House after Slavery
Virginia Plantation Families and Their Postbellum Domestic Experiment
About this book
The Big House after Slavery examines the economic, social, and political challenges that Virginia planter families faced following Confederate defeat and emancipation. Amy Feely Morsman addresses how men and women of the planter class responded to postwar problems and how their adaptations to life without slavery altered their marital relationships and their conceptions of gender roles.
Unable to afford many servants in the new free labor economy, many of Virginia's former masters put themselves to work on their plantations, and their wives had to expand their responsibilities as well, taking on the tasks of cooking and cleaning in addition to working in the garden, the henhouse, and the dairy. Laboring in these ways and struggling to maintain their standing as elites contributed to an identity crisis among Virginia planters. It also led them to practice mutuality within their own marriages and to reconsider what proper Southern womanhood and manhood meant in the new postwar order.
Using newspapers, periodicals, organization records, and numerous letters from Virginia plantation families, Morsman captures how these frustrated elites made sense of embarrassing postwar changes, in the private but also in the public spheres they inhabited. Morsman suggests that the planters' adaptations may have been carried forward by their adult children away from the crumbling plantations and into the urban households of the New South.
Frequently asked questions
- Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
- Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- ONE. "By Hard Labour and Close Economy" Virginia Planters Go To Work
- TWO. Keeping Up Appearances A Crisis of Status in Virginia's Postwar Plantation Households
- THREE. "For Our Mutual Protection and Advancement" Planter Families in Virginia's Postbellum Voluntary Organizations
- FOUR. Baring Virginia's Bosom for Political Gain Politicians, Manhood, and Debt
- FIVE. Abandoning the Homestead How the Next Generation Embraced a New South
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index