Southern Ladies Public Forums

Recently a historian said at a conference that elite Southern ladies had few opportunities in the antebellum period to address a wider audience. Their platform she suggested was limited to church functions and thus they had little access to illustrate their committment to the slave institution. I beg to differ and offer just a few short things to counter this oft-imagine vision of elite Southern whtie women sitting around in silk gowns falling over men like Scarlett O'Hara.

Caroline Lee Hentz wrote about a dozen novels though her The Planter's Northern Bride
was her first to deal with slavery. Check it out here: http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/proslav/hentzhp.html

Additionally, the former First Lady, Mrs. Julia Gardiner Tyler wrote a scathing letter to the Duchess of Sutherland which was published in the Richmond Enquirer and subsequently in the Southern Literary Messenger. It can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/ptgcv7 Thousands of people received or read elsewhere the Messenger it was the South's most important literary publication. Former President John Tyler in 1860 had more than 70 enslaved laborers engaged in caring for his large family and growing corn and wheat on his plantation, Sherwood Forest (http://www.sherwoodforest.org)

Lastly, we cannot forget South Carolina slaveholder and slavery defender, Louisa McCord. Leigh Fought completed a bio on McCord a few years ago: http://press.umsystem.edu/spring2003/fought.htm. Both McCords wrote for Southern Literary Messenger. You can float through this link to find article written by David (d. 1855) and Louisa (d. 1879): http://tinyurl.com/rys6ec

I hope this helps to start us imaging elite white women in the context they existed in.