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"Scarlett's Sisters" explores the meaning of nineteenth-century southern womanhood from the vantage point of the celebrated fictional character's flesh-and-blood counterparts: young, elite, white women. Anya Jabour demonstrates that southern girls and young women faced a major turning point when the Civil War forced them to assume new roles and responsibilities as independent women. Examining the lives of more than 300 girls and women between ages fifteen and twenty-five, Jabour traces the socialization of southern white ladies from early adolescence through young adulthood. Amidst the upheaval of the Civil War, Jabour shows, elite young women, once reluctant to challenge white supremacy and male dominance, became more rebellious. They adopted the ideology of Confederate independence in shaping a new model of southern womanhood that eschewed dependence on slave labor and male guidance. By tracing the lives of young white women in a society in flux, Jabour reveals how the South's old social order was maintained and a new one created as southern girls and young women learned, questioned, and ultimately changed what it meant to be a southern lady. "Scarlett's Sisters" explores the meaning of nineteenth-century southern womanhood from the vantage point of the celebrated fictional character's flesh-and-blood counterparts: young, elite, white women. Anya Jabour demonstrates that southern girls and young women faced a major turning point when the Civil War forced them to assume new roles and responsibilities as independent women. Examining the lives of more than 300 girls and women between ages fifteen and twenty-five, Jabour traces the socialization of southern white ladies from early adolescence through young adulthood. By tracing the lives of these young women in a society in flux, Jabour reveals how the South's old social order was maintained and a new one created as southern girls and young women learned, questioned, and ultimately changed what it meant to be a southern lady.

About the Author :
Anya Jabour is professor of history at the University of Montana. She is author of "Marriage in the Early Republic: Elizabeth and William Wirt and the Companionate Ideal" and editor of "Major Problems in the History of American Families and Children."

Review :
"Anya Jabour's extended and original portrait of the culture of elite girlhood in the antebellum South deftly weaves a narrative argument that addresses the distinctively regional nature of southern female adolescence and, more particularly, the distinctive nature of southern girls' resistance to narrow definitions of southern womanhood. Jabour's research is exhaustive, her argument convincing, and her writing crisp and engaging."--Terri L. Snyder, California State University, Fullerton "In her study of women, gender, and class in the Old South, Anya Jabour adds the important dimension of age and the life cycle to our grasp of southern social life. She lets us see young, elite women as living in a social realm that was distinct and yet oriented toward the future. Freshly written and meticulously researched, this book is full of women whose voices are clear and arresting."--Steven M. Stowe, Indiana University