(Re)telling the Times: The Tangled Memories of Confederate Spies Rose O’Neal Greenhow and Belle Boyd

Abstract

This article explores the rhetorical nature of “tangled” memories, what Marita Sturken describes as an intermeshing of sanctioned histories with personal and/or public narratives. To exemplify this phenomenon, the author examines the public memories of Rose O’Neal Greenhow and Belle Boyd. Greenhow and Boyd actively promoted slavery in their published accounts yet common “retellings” of their lives often elide these positions, and instead focus on their sensational work as Confederate spies. Such a reframing depicts them as progressive women, creating a tangled memory that uncritically lionizes them. Ultimately, the author argues, more complex “retellings” of historical figures are needed.

Notes

1 I would like to thank Rhetoric Review reviewers Elizabethada Wright and Jane Greer for their invaluable feedback on this article. I am equally appreciative of my writing group: Rose Keefe, Gesa Kirsch, Amy Lueck, Pam Saunders, Jim Webber, and Erin Wecker.

2 As the American Historical Society explains: “The bulk of the monument building took place not in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War but from the close of the 19th century into the second decade of the 20th. Commemorating not just the Confederacy but also the ‘Redemption’ of the South after Reconstruction, this enterprise was part and parcel of the initiation of legally mandated segregation and widespread disenfranchisement across the South.”

3 First published in London and then in the U.S., the narratives of Greenhow and Boyd were immensely successful. Greenhow’s memoir was advertised regularly in newspapers such as The Index, The Guardian, and the London Morning Post, and met with great sales overall. She reportedly earned about two thousand dollars from the sales of her book in England (Blackman 299). Boyd’s memoir also brought in a considerable amount of money. Louis Sigaud, Boyd’s biographer, describes the income that she generated from the sale of her memoir as “substantial” (186). While the exact number sold is unknown, Boyd disclosed to a friend that she earned seven to eight thousand dollars from the sale of her book, a profit that hints at the memoir’s popularity (Kennedy-Nolle 4).

4 In “The Speaker Respoken: Material Rhetoric as Feminist Methodology,” Burton explores the concept of “rhetorical accretion” in the context of Methodist mystic Hester Rodgers and her memoir. Tracing how Rodgers’s account was changed as later editions were published, Burton discusses how these layers ultimately shift how Rodgers presented herself. In this essay, I broaden the parameters of rhetorical accretion to examine how additional retellings of Greenhow and Boyd impact their public memories.

5 For more on Ancient Romans and their rhetorical discussions of memory, see Frances Yates’s The Art of Memory.

6 For more on the difference between history and memory, see Pierre Nora’s “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire” and David Blight’s “If You Don’t Tell It Like It Was, It Can Never Be as It Ought to Be.”

7 See Patricia Wilde’s dissertation By Her Available Means: The Sensational Rhetoric of Women’s Civil War Memoirs for a complete list of women’s published personal narratives that discuss the American Civil War.

8 The Trent Affair, which involved the North intercepting a British ship carrying two Confederate diplomats, almost resulted in a war between the Union and Great Britain in 1861. A long-term issue with a British shipyard that was building warships and blockade-runners for the Confederacy was also a source of tension between the English and the Union.

9 As Wineapple explains, “Lincoln did not have the power to abolish slavery in the loyal border states. To them (Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, Kentucky), he promised gradual and compensated emancipation” (243).

10 This particular passage is included in a letter that Greenhow wrote to Seward, which is incorporated into her narrative.

11 In an effort to understand better their authorly choices, I emailed both Lineberry and Abbott. I did not receive a response from Lineberry, and although I did make contact with Abbott, she did not answer my second email in which I asked several questions about her article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Patricia A. Wilde

Patricia A. Wilde is an Assistant Professor of English and Writing Program Administrator at Washington State University Tri-Cities. Her work has appeared in Peitho, Praxis, WPA: Writing Program Administration, and a number of edited collections including Women at Work: Rhetorics of Women and Labor in the US; Serendipity in Rhetoric, Writing, and Literacy Research; and Archives Pedagogies of Public Memory: Teaching Writing and Rhetoric at Museums, Archives, and Memorials.