Southern Women Coming of Age In the Civil War

Dr. Victoria Ott presents an interesting study of young, upper class women in the southern Confederacy from 1861-1865. Her subjects are young girls between the ages of 12 and 18 at the beginning of the war and from slave holding families. She utilizes the diaries of these girls as source material to weave the story of how they perceived the North, Abraham Lincoln, and the war. She illustrates how these girls defied Yankee authority either blatantly or surreptitiously, in their manner of dress, social activities, and actions. The video runs about 55 minutes including a short Q&A, and is found on C-Span 3. As with many lectures, the time allowed is too short to get involved with much detail, but Dr. Ott presents a good overview of how the girls acted and reacted to the war and the changing world around them. Please excuse not having the video actually embedded here. I was not exactly sure how to post it without copyright infringement. but the link is below.

http://www.c-span.org/History/Events/The-Civil-War-Southern-Women39s-Views-of-the-North-amp-Abraham-Lincoln/10737426819/

Dr. Ott is an Associate Professor of History at Birmingham Southern College at Birmingham, Alabama and the author of "Confederate Daughters: Coming of Age During the Civil War".