Free Women of Petersburg: Status and Culture in a Southern Town, 1784-1860 (Revised) (Revised)

Title: Free Women of Petersburg: Status and Culture in a Southern Town, 1784-1860 (Revised) (Revised)
Author: Suzanne Lebsock
Social Science: 1696417
ISBN: 9780393952643
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 1985
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Edition: Revised ed.
Section: Social Science | Women's Studies
Condition Note: Clean, unmarked copy with some edge wear. Good binding. Dust jacket included if issued with one. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.
Publisher Description:

Focusing on Petersburg, Virginia, Professor Lebsock is able to demonstrate and explain how the status of women could change for the better in an antifeminist environment. She weaves the experiences of individual women together with general social trends, to show, for example, how women's lives were changing in response to the economy and the institutions of property ownership and slavery.

By looking at what the Petersburg women did and thought and comparing their behavior with that of men, Lebsock discovers that they placed high value on economic security, on the personal, on the religious, and on the interests of other women. In a society committed to materialism, male dominance, and the maintenance of slavery, their influence was subversive. They operated from an alternative value system, indeed a distinct female culture.