How Did Southern Belles Help Dispel Their Own Stereotype

Southern Belle in Baltimore depicted on the cover of Harper's Weekly, September 7, 1861.

The Antebellum South was constructed and rationalized from stereotypes. All too familiar are the stereotypes of African-Americans being seen as barbaric, lazy, and ignorant. Equally strong in the South in this period, was the stereotype of the "Southern Belle." The belle was perceived as a woman of culture and refinement. Although this myth was in fact perpetuated by the actions of elite white women, the tenacity and strength displayed by several of these ladies during the Civil War crisis forever changed public perception. Southern women of the elite class worked incredibly hard and toiled long hours with the hope of restoring the South to its antebellum state. Ironically, by doing so they aided in dispelling the myth of the Southern Belle.

Antebellum Women

Mrs. Jefferson Davis.

The life of a plantation mistress was constructed to be one of leisure. Unlike their counterparts in the North, young ladies in the South had no opportunities to earn wages on their own, thus the only means by which to leave the family home was through marriage. Young women in the northern states;however, were entering the work force in factories and the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts as early as the 1820’s and were able to enjoy a feeling of independence. In Southern culture, women devoted their time to leisure and the pursuit of culture; labor was for slaves.

The plantation wives held charge over the domestic slaves and often found room to complain about the task of maintaining obedience. In a diary entry from February of 1861, wealthy South Carolinian Ada Bacot grumbled that some of her “young Negroes have been disobeying my orders.” Her journal entry continued to say that she was “mistress and will be obeyed.” The only authority a southern women was able to exert at the time, was over slaves. Less than two years later, Mrs. Bacot would find herself working as a Confederate nurse in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Bacot arrived in Charlottesville on December 12, 1860. She was a strong and vocal secessionist who compared her love for South Carolina to that of “an affectionate daughter for a mother.” She was willing to endure the hardships of a hospital in order to preserve the culture and societal norms of her state. Nursing and other hospital services up until this time were considered to be the domain of men. The Confederate Army Medical Department was created on February 26, 1861 and was overseen by the Confederacy’s first Surgeon General, Dr. Samuel Preston Moore. The hospital attendants consisted of slaves and enlisted men who were deemed unfit for service. As a general rule, men were essentially ignorant as to the methods of caring for the sick and wounded. The medical director in Danville, Virginia described his male nurses as “rough country crackers who have not enough sense to be kind.”Conversely, women were somewhat skilled in caring for the sick as they had done this on the home front prior to the war. In September 1862, the Confederate Congress passed an act allowing hospitals to hire two matrons and two assistant matrons and as many cooks and nurses as needed. Those who were tasked with hiring were instructed to give “preference in all cases to females.”

Breaking the Stereotype

Kate Cumming.

Many belles responded to the call with a sense of duty and pride, while an even greater number deemed this type of work to be unfit for a lady. Kate Cumming, a dedicated Confederate nurse, recalled being told that the hospitals were no places for women and that was not considered “respectable to go into one.” In April 1862, Cumming arrived in Corinth, Mississippi at a hotel that had been converted into a hospital. She was initially unaware of the sights, sounds, and smells she would encounter and confessed to her journal that the “foul air” made her “giddy and sick,” and that it was necessary for her to “kneel, in blood and water.” Circumstances such as these were in stark contrast to anything these women experienced in the Antebellum Era.

The levels of care and sanitary conditions varied from hospital to hospital. Cleanliness was continually emphasized as the medical directors were well aware of the prevalence of disease and infection. The most common symptom upon arrival at any hospital was dysentery. A soldier's life in camp was conducive to this problem as water sources were contaminated by human excrement. The southerner men who arrived in camp from rural areas were what one might call "rubes." They had little experience with community latrines or education with regard to proper sanitary procedures. Unfortunately, these poor hygienic practices were continued when the soldier arrived at a hospital. For example, Jackson hospital in Richmond was described as having the “floors and seats of sinks…smeared with excrement.” These foul examples of sights and smells offer just a glimpse of what the nurses had to endure; the emotional impact was equally great.