Mothers of Invention Quotes

“For many women like Sarah Morgan, clothing at once expressed desire and dread, possibility and impossibility. "If I was only a man!" she exclaimed. "I dont know a woman here who does not groan over her misfortune in being clothed in petticoats; why cant we fight as well as the men[?]”
― Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War: Women of the Slave-Holding South in the American Civil War

“She had, she declared, "no patience with women whom I hear telling what wonders they would do if they were only men, when I see so much of their legitimate work left undone.... I could name many things they could do," she continued in a revealing concession to prevailing anxieties about respectability, "without ever going into a ward."47”
― Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War: Women of the Slave-Holding South in the American Civil War

“Empowered by her strong sense of mission, Cumming was undaunted by male opposition. "It is useless," she proclaimed, "to say the surgeons will not allow us; we have our rights, and if asserted properly will get them. This is our right and ours alone.”
― Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War: Women of the Slave-Holding South in the American Civil War

“For Cumming the Christian and feminine imperative of service far outweighed superficial notions of female delicacy. Employing one dimension of feminine ideology to dismiss another, Cumming despaired of her southern sisters, inhibited by false claims of modesty and respectability from undertaking desperately needed hospital work.45”
― Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War: Women of the Slave-Holding South in the American Civil War

“Joynes was careful to maintain the notion of separate spheres, even as he advocated significant change. A reformed system of women's schooling "should be based upon the idea that woman is woman, and not man-nor a butterfly," neither man's "plaything nor his rival.”
― Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War: Women of the Slave-Holding South in the American Civil War

“Working women seemed "brazen," even to those like Lila Chunn who understood and encouraged necessary departures from tradition.”
― Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War: Women of the Slave-Holding South in the American Civil War

“Ladies keep the stores here now ... their husbands having joined the army. It looks funny in Dixie to see a lady behind the counter, but it would be natural if we were in Yankeedom as it has always [been] the custom there, a custom however I do not like. The idea of a lady having to face and transact business with any and every body. It is alone suited to the North[ern] women of brazen faces. But I say if it is necessary, our ladies ought to shopkeep and do everything else they can to aid in the great struggle for Liberty."4”
― Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War: Women of the Slave-Holding South in the American Civil War

“Where there are so many negroes upon places as upon ours," wrote an Alabama woman to the governor, "it is quite necessary that there should be men who can and will controle them, especially at this time." Faced with the prospect of being left with sixty slaves, a Mississippi planter's wife expressed similar sentiments. "Do you think," she demanded of GovernorJohn Pettus, "that this woman's hand can keep them in check?" Women compelled to assume responsibility over slaves tended to regard their new role more as a duty than an opportunity.”
― Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War: Women of the Slave-Holding South in the American Civil War

“As the Reverend Robert Barnwell emphasized in an address to the ladies of Charleston, "WITHOUT YOU, THIS WAR COULD NOT HAVE BEEN CARRIED ON, FOR THE GOVERNMENT WAS NOT PREPARED TO MEET ALL THAT WAS THROWN UPON IT.”
― Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War: Women of the Slave-Holding South in the American Civil War