Georgia Women: Their Lives and Times, Volume 2

by Kathleen Ann Clark (Editor), Carlos Dews (Contribution by), Glenn T. Eskew (Contribution by), Steve Goodson (Contribution by), Sarah Gordon (Contribution by)

Overview

Women were leading actors in twentieth-century developments in Georgia, yet most histories minimize their contributions. The essays in the second volume of Georgia Women, edited by Ann Short Chirhart and Kathleen Ann Clark, vividly portray a wide array of Georgia women who played an important role in the state’s history, from little-known Progressive Era activists to famous present-day figures such as Pulitzer Prize–winning author Alice Walker and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

Georgia women were instrumental to state and national politics even before they achieved suffrage, and as essays on Lillian Smith, Frances Pauley, Coretta Scott King, and others demonstrate, they played a key role in twentieth-century struggles over civil rights, gender equality, and the proper size and reach of government. Georgia women’s contributions have been wide ranging in the arena of arts and culture and include the works of renowned blues singer Gertrude “Ma” Rainey and such nationally prominent literary figures as Margaret Mitchell, Carson McCullers, and Flannery O’Connor, as well as Walker.

While many of the volume’s essays take a fresh look at relatively well-known figures, readers will also have the opportunity to discover women who were vital to Georgia’s history yet remain relatively obscure today, such as Atlanta educator and activist Lugenia Burns Hope, World War II aviator Hazel Raines, entrepreneur and carpet manufacturer Catherine Evans Whitener, and rural activist and author Vara A. Majette. Collectively, the life stories portrayed in this volume deepen our understanding of the multifaceted history of not only Georgia women but also the state itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820337852
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	07/15/2014
Series:	Southern Women: Their Lives and Times Series , #10
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	959,919
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

KATHLEEN ANN CLARK is associate professor of history at the University of Georgia and the author of Defining Moments: African American Commemoration and Political Culture in the South, 1863–1913.

GLENN T. ESKEW is a professor of history at Georgia State University. He is the author of But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle, editor of Labor in the Modern South, and coeditor of Paternalism in a Southern City.

STEVE GOODSON is an associate professor of history at the State University of West Georgia.

SARAH GORDON is a professor emerita of English at Georgia College and State University. She was for many years the chair of her university’s internationally renowned symposia on O’Connor. In addition she was the editor of the Flannery O’Connor Bulletin and the founding editor of the Flannery O’Connor Review. Her books include Flannery O’Connor: The Obedient Imagination and Flannery O’Connor: In Celebration of Genius.

JOHN C. INSCOE is a professor of history emeritus at the University of Georgia and the founding editor of the New Georgia Encyclopedia. He is coauthor of The Heart of Confederate Appalachia.

ROBIN M. MORRIS is associate professor of history at Agnes Scott College. She researches gender and the political realignment of Georgia after World War II. Her work has appeared in Entering the Fray: Gender, Politics, and Culture in the New South. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

RANDALL L. PATTON is a professor of history at Kennesaw State University. He is coauthor, with David B. Parker, of Carpet Capital: The Rise of a New South Industry, author of Shaw Industries: A History, and editor of Working for Equality: The Narrative of Harry Hudson (all Georgia).

ANN SHORT CHIRHART is an assistant professor of history at Indiana State University.

ANN SHORT CHIRHART is an assistant professor of history at Indiana State University.

KATHLEEN ANN CLARK is associate professor of history at the University of Georgia and the author of Defining Moments: African American Commemoration and Political Culture in the South, 1863–1913.

Kathleen Ann Clark (Editor)
KATHLEEN ANN CLARK is associate professor of history at the University of Georgia and the author of Defining Moments: African American Commemoration and Political Culture in the South, 1863–1913.

Ann Short Chirhart (Editor)
ANN SHORT CHIRHART is an assistant professor of history at Indiana State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction
Ann Short Chirhart with Betty Wood 1

Mary Musgrove (ca. 1700– 1765)
Maligned Mediator or Mischievous Malefactor? 11
Julie Anne Sweet

Nancy Hart (ca. 1735– ca. 1830)
“Too Good Not to Tell Again” 33
John Thomas Scott

Elizabeth Lichtenstein Johnston (1764– 1848)
“Shot Round the World but Not Heard” 58
Ben Marsh

Ellen Craft (ca. 1826– 1891)
The Fugitive Who Fled as a Planter 82
Barbara McCaskill

Fanny Kemble (1809– 1893) and Frances Butler Leigh (1838– 1910)
Becoming Georgian 106
Daniel Kilbride

Susie King Taylor (1848– 1912)
“I Gave My Services Willingly” 130
Catherine Clinton

Eliza Frances Andrews (1840– 1931)
“I Will Have to Say ‘Damn!’ Yet, Before I Am Done with Them” 147
Christopher J. Olsen

Amanda America Dickson (1849– 1893)
A Wealthy Lady of Color in Nineteenth- Century Georgia 173
Kent Anderson Leslie

Mary Gay (1829– 1918)
Sin, Self, and Survival in the Post– Civil War South 199
Michele Gillespie

Rebecca Latimer Felton (1835– 1930)
The Problem of Protection in the New South 224
LeeAnn Whites

Mary Latimer McLendon (1840– 1921)
“Mother of Suff rage Work in Georgia” 245
Stacey Horstmann Gatti

Mildred Lewis Rutherford (1851– 1928)
The Redefi nition of New South White Womanhood 272
Sarah Case

Nellie Peters Black (1851– 1919)
Georgia’s Pioneer Club Woman 297
Carey Olmstead Shellman

Lucy Craft Laney (1855– 1933) and Martha Berry (1866– 1942)
Lighting Fires of Knowledge 318
Jennifer Lund Smith

Corra Harris (1869– 1935)
The Storyteller as Folk Preacher 341
Donald Mathews

Juliette Gordon Low (1860– 1927)
Late- Blooming Daisy 370
Anastatia Hodgens Sims

Selected Bibliography 391
List of Contributors 399
Index 403

Editorial Reviews

An amazing group of women shines forth in this collection of essays. They represent the best of Georgia in the twentieth century, from the farm to the city; in the classrooms, the arts, and the halls of law; and on the streets, fighting for social justice. Georgia women have brought significant vitality and change to their home state, and their stories come together brilliantly in this volume.

author of Cooking in Other Women’s Kitchens: Domestic Workers in the South, 1865–1960 - Rebecca Sharpless

The diversity of experiences presented here makes components of this volume useful in courses on women’s history, Southern history, political history, or the long civil rights movement. This highly readable volume is commendable in its own right, but it also adds much to the invaluable Southern Women series.

Southern Historian - Daniel Manuel

Overall, Volume 2 of Georgia Women is a well-researched and finely written collection that should be a valuable resource for both students and scholars, particularly those interested in women’s, Georgia, and southern history.

The Journal of Southern History - June Melby Benowitz

A comprehensive and interesting collection of essays that reveals both the depth and the breadth of the contributions women have made to the state’s modern history. The volume highlights the many ways race, class, family structure, historical and economic forces, and creativity shaped the lives of these interesting women.

author of Carry It On: The War on Poverty and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, 1964–1972 - Susan Youngblood Ashmore

[T]his exploration of 'Georgia Women' provides a stunning introduction to the study of the role of passionate women in the creation of history and today.

Metro Spirit of Augusta

This important work brings to light the role of significant women in our state's history. Reflecting the latest scholarship in the field, it brings more depth and analysis to women whose stories may be familiar and introduces women whose efforts and contributions deserve a place in Georgia's historical record.

director of the Center for the Study of Georgia History, Augusta State University - Lee Ann Caldwell

While the essays might hold special interest for those who study Georgia, they can also introduce scholars of women's and southern history to new intricacies in the lives of even the most famous of the women

Journal of Southern History

Women have made their mark on all aspects of Georgia's history, from early colonization and revolution, through slavery, war, and defeat, and on through the era of racial repression and reform. Their stories, as told here by accomplished historians all, provide valuable new gendered lenses through which to view that history afresh. Full of new insights and fascinating reading throughout.

editor of The New Georgia Encyclopedia - John C. Inscoe

“An amazing group of women shines forth in this collection of essays. They represent the best of Georgia in the twentieth century, from the farm to the city; in the classrooms, the arts, and the halls of law; and on the streets, fighting for social justice. Georgia women have brought significant vitality and change to their home state, and their stories come together brilliantly in this volume.”—Rebecca Sharpless, author of Cooking in Other Women’s Kitchens: Domestic Workers in the South, 1865–1960

“A comprehensive and interesting collection of essays that reveals both the depth and the breadth of the contributions women have made to the state’s modern history. The volume highlights the many ways race, class, family structure, historical and economic forces, and creativity shaped the lives of these interesting women.”—Susan Youngblood Ashmore, author of Carry It On: The War on Poverty and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, 1964–1972

From the Publisher