Although both the north and south were governed by the same central congressional body, they had very different views on what that meant.
In the north there was little conflict with the government, nothing more than the usual grumbling. But the South did have what they saw as a problem. Their Representatives and Senators argued for what they preceived as their right to own slaves, and trade with foreign powers, to make their own rules and govern themselves without the Federal law telling them what to do.
How does this effect the women? To a great degree the north was organized. The Sanitation Commission organized the women in the north to provide food, clothing, and odds and ends to the new army. They set up long tables at train stops and feed the army on the move. The North had a Christian organization that held services at the various army training camps, and passed out religious tracts, and Bibles. These groups as well as the smaller gatherings of neighbors who knitted and sewed, tore and rolled bandages, and wrote letters to their men folk provided an outlet for the need to help for these women.
One of their largest tasks was to carry on the business of trading, farming and providing for the family left behind. The Northern women were better prepared to do this. The liberation movement (not called that back then) had begun in the North with women taking on more equal tasks next to their husbands, and fathers. This change was born out of necessity. The work had to be shared by the entire family. Many taboos for women were abolished along with slavery in the North.
When the war started there was a need for those who could, to care for the sick and wounded. The North had an organized nursing community. Though the women had to fight for funds and supplies, they at least had the government to fight with and to eventually comply.
But nursing was just one of the areas where women from both sides added their influence. More on those later. And more on the differences between the Northern and Southern women’s problems.
Tags: civil war women, North and South, nurses, religion, Sanitation Commission, women, women at war
