Civil War Women

The Civil war brought large amounts of despair for people of both the North and the South. However, women during this time period were subject to a new sense of opportunity that would that would influence many to become leaders and take on important roles both on and off the battlefield. On the battle field many women were nurses and helped take care of soldiers who were wounded while others actually fought in the war disguised as men. Furthermore, women had important roles besides helping on the frontlines. Many took on new roles at home when the men in the family left to fight in the war. In addition, a number of women would take up leadership roles in abolitionists movements in both the north and the south. Many historians argue that without

During the beginning of the war Venet’s writing suggests that many didn’t know quite what to do. However, as time lingered on many women abolitionists both young and old began to find their role in different important movements that had a key focus on emancipation. Further on in the book Venet concentrates her writing on a woman by the name of Anna Elizabeth Dickinson. Regarded as the “Abolition’s Joan of Arc,” Dickinson would become one of the most “popular women lecturers of the abolitionist cause” (Venet 37). Forced in to work due to her father’s death, Dickinson obtained the ability to connect with the working class. This skill was one of the many things that set her apart from most women abolitionists. She began to speak publically in Philadelphia advocating women’s suffrage, prostitution, and emancipation of slaves. After gaining support from important male abolitionists like Lloyd Garrison, she quickly rose to fame giving speeches to large crowds persuading thousands to believe and join her cause. Public speaking, however, was not the only way women abolitionist attracted supporters. Several women were able to do so through their writing. In addition, many of these authors were European seeking to draw attention the need for emancipation in the American Civil War. British author Harriet Beecher Stowe, believed that the war was “a holy crusade to emancipate the slaves” (Venet 94). Stowe used this belief to attract sympathy toward the anti-slavery movements from fellow Europeans. In addition, British-born actress Frances Anne Kimble, long-time abolitionists Lydia Maria Child, and poet Julia Ward Howe published effective antislavery propaganda that would further gain support for emancipation in