Libbie (Elizabeth) Custer

Chapters 8 & 9; Midterm Week

WEEK #3: Expansion: Civil War & Western Settlement

National expansion brings Civil War and New Settlements to the trans-Mississippi West. We begin this class looking at North American Women from the seventeenth century through the American Revolution--"Red, White, and Black," so to speak. We focus on the experiences of North American Indian women, European American women, and also, African American women.

After the Civil War, I like to emphasize regional communities--begining with the South, then moving West and returnng East to discuss the rise of corporate capitalism and the ways in which this economic growth increaasingly brought these regions together.

Chapter 8: White Women in the Civil War (Leeann Whites, "Southern White Women and the Burdens of War," pp. 213-220 & Jeanie Attie, "NOrthern White Women and the Mobilization for War," pp. 221-229)

What were the differences in the experiences of northern and suthern white women during the Civil War? How do you think the war affectsed them? What were the positive changes, and what a were the negative changes brought by this war? Most importantly, how did this war affect their consciousness, their sense of who they were and the possibilities for their lives? (both North and South) How did white women's experiences in these regions differ?

Chapter 9: Western Women (Judy Yung, "Chinese Women in Nineteenth Century S.F.," pp. 245-252 & Deena J. Gonzalez, "Life and Legend of Gertrudis Barcelo in Nineteenth-Century Santa Fe," pp. 252-259)

Please Note, for Chapter Nine, you only need to read the Yung and Gonzalez articles. Regarding women in the trans-Mississippi West, who are these women? You have two examples here, Chinesee women and southwestern Hispanic women--how did their experiences compare? How was life in urban San Francisco versus the rural Southwest? Describe the lives of various classes of women--what kinds of women were most successful, and where did women such as Gertrudis Barcelo find opportunity? What was Barcelo's place in the community?