Silk and Rifles: A Gender Analysis of Blockade Runner Cargos

Author(s): Emily A. Schwalbe

Year: 2017

Summary

This presentation examines the tension between nineteenth-century Southern gender expectations of upper-class femininity contrasted with the necessities of wartime. It will assess whether this tension is evident in the material record by analyzing the cargo of Confederate blockade runners entering the affluent ports of Wilmington and Charleston. By examining the cargo from blockade runners, as well as looking at historical records, this presentation will draw conclusions about what women wanted to buy during the Civil War, and compare these demands with the new notions of simplicity and sacrifice that theoretically defined the Confederacy in order to better understand gender expectations during this period. 

Cite this Record

Silk and Rifles: A Gender Analysis of Blockade Runner Cargos. Emily A. Schwalbe. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435372)

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Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 151