Single, white, slaveholding women in the nineteenth-century American South /Marie S. Molloy.

"Single, White, Slaveholding Women in the Nineteenth-Century American South investigates the lives of unmarried white women--from the pre- to the post-Civil War South--within a society that placed high value on women's marriage and motherhood. Marie S. Molloy examines female singleness to incorporate nonmarriage, widowhood, separation, and divorce. These single women were not subject to the laws and customs of coverture, in which females were covered by or subject to the governance of fathers, brothers, and husbands, and therefore lived with greater autonomy than married women. Molloy contends that the Civil War proved a catalyst for accelerating personal, social, economic, and legal changes for these women. Being a single woman during this time often meant living a creative and nuanced life, operating within a tight framework of traditional gender conventions while managing subtle changes that worked to their advantage. Singleness was often a route to autonomy and independence that over time expanded and reshaped traditional ideals of Southern womanhood"--

Includes bibliographies and index.

The construction of femininity in the antebellum South -- Single women and the southern family -- Work -- Female friendship -- Law, property, and the single woman.

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