Unruly Women: Annotated Bibliography

In her book Unruly Women: The Politics of Social & Sexual Control in the Old South , Victoria E. Bynum gives the reader an opportunity to understand the life of women in antebellum and Civil War North Carolina. More specifically, she focuses her study on the counties of Granville, Orange, and Montgomery. Though geographically close, these counties have more contrasting elements than one would think. Certain aspects such as demographics, location, and social norms aided in the expectations of how women were to behave in each of these counties. Some of these women pushed the boundaries and acted in ways that were far from a proper lady’s behavior. They were considered “unruly” or inappropriate. Bynum gives numerous accounts of these unruly women and how their actions changed the way women were perceived. They also gave the female population the courage to stand up for what they …show more content…
Southern leaders believed that women should have a right to an education so that she can help “build a strong society” by teaching and nurturing the young male leaders. Sadly, there were no positive thoughts regarding women in a political sense. Leaders did not see how women could positively affect the way government was run. They did not hesitate to mock the efforts of those women who pushed for women’s rights and abolition. In fact, many women began petitions to change the way slaves were treated. For example, petitions were signed to protect slave women from sexual abuse by white males and to prevent selling slave children apart from their mothers. This did not aid in abolishing slavery, but it did humanize it to an extent. At the same time, a temperance movement was brewing. Women argued that men were abandoning their familial roles for the luxury of being drunk. The movement grew until abolition became popular in the North. This caused southerners to pull back and change the way they thought about the