Civil liberties: The expansion of white women's communicative activities from the antebellum south through the civil war

Abstract

This study analyzes the communicative behaviors and discourse of women in Georgia during the Civil War to determine how women were able to broaden and extend their rhetorical influence during this period. We argue that women increased their authority and impact in communities by strategically balancing what might be considered an “unfeminine” degree of self‐assertion with other, seemingly conciliatory behaviors that appeared to satisfy societal expectations. Faced with the contradictory demands of a society that insisted upon their helplessness while demanding their participation, these women made a unique rhetorical contribution both to the war itself, and to the rhetorical history from which they have too often been excluded.