Gendering Secession
White Women and Politics in South Carolina, 1859–1861

Reveals, from the women's point of view, why South Carolina dared to leave the Union and stand alone.

Melissa DeVelvis (Author)

9781009217859, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 March 2025

241 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.1 cm, 0.497 kg

''Gendering Secession' offers students of the Civil War era a significant and largely neglected perspective. Although South Carolina's elite white women were not able to vote or run for office they held powerful influence within their households and communities by the examples and guidance the provided their families and the forward public face they presented. The tug-of-war of emotions that came with the exciting yet also apprehensive times they were experiencing comes through vividly in this important piece of scholarship.' Tim Talbott, Emerging Civil War

Gendering Secession explores the lives and politics of South Carolina's elite white women from 1859 to 1861. The political drama that unfolded during the secession crisis of 1860 has long captured our attention, but scant regard has been paid to the secessionist women themselves. These women were astute political observers and analysts who filtered their “improper” political ideas through avenues gendered as feminine and therefore socially acceptable. In recreating the rhythms of the year 1860, Melissa DeVelvis spotlights the moments when women realized that national events were too overwhelming to dismiss. Women processed these changes through religious metaphor and prophecy, comparisons to history and the American Revolution, and language borrowed from popular novels. Drawing from emotions history, literary analysis, and even handwriting analysis, DeVelvis reveals how these fiercely patriotic South Carolinian women responded to threats of disunion with fears and misgivings that men would or could not express.

Introduction
1. 1859, the last fully antebellum year
2. 'The gay season,' January–May 1860
3. Escaping the sickly season, May–September 1860
4. South Carolina takes action, October–December 1860
5. The waiting game: December 1860–March 1861
6. Catharsis and conclusion: Fort Sumter, First Bull Run, and a peek at postbellum.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]