[634] See Whitaker’s paper in Transactions Ala. Hist. Soc., Vol. IV, p. 211 et seq.
[635] Col. Higginson seems to understand the influence of the women, but not the reason for their interest in public questions. He says: “But for the women of the seceding states, the War of the Rebellion would have been waged more feebly, been sooner ended, and far more easily forgotten.... Had the voters of the South been all women, it would have plunged earlier into the gulf of secession, dived deeper, and come up even more reluctantly.” Higginson, “Common Sense about Women,” pp. 54, 209. Professor Burgess, with a better understanding, explains the reason for the interest of the women in sectional questions. He says that, after the attempt of John Brown to incite the slaves to insurrection, “especially did terror and bitterness take possession of the hearts of the women of the South, who saw in slave insurrection not only destruction and death, but that which to feminine virtue is a thousand times worse than the most terrible death. For those who would excite such a movement or sympathize with anybody who would excite such a movement, the women of the South felt a hatred as undying as virtue itself. Men might still hesitate ... but the women were united and resolute, and their unanimous exhortation was: ‘Men of the South, defend the honor of your mothers, your wives, your sisters, and your daughters. It is your highest and most sacred duty.’” Burgess, “Civil War and the Constitution,” Vol. I, p. 42.
[636] “Our Women in War,” passim; Ball, “Clarke County,” pp. 261-274; oral accounts, scrap-books, letters.
[637] One of my acquaintances says that quite often she had only bread, milk, and syrup twice a day. Sometimes she was unable to eat any breakfast, but after spinning an hour or two she was hungry enough to eat. To many the diet was very healthful, but the sick and the delicate often died for want of proper food.
[638] At the close of the war my mother was twelve years old; for more than two years she had been doing a woman’s task at spinning. Her sister had been spinning for a year, though she was only six years old.
[639] Many of the heavier articles woven during the war, such as coverlets, counterpanes, rugs, etc., are still, after forty years, almost as good as new.
[640] Acts, Dec., 1861, 2d Called and 1st Regular Sess., p. 70.
[641] Hague, “Blockaded Family,” passim; Miller, pp. 223-232; “Our Women in the War,” p. 275 et seq.; Clayton, “White and Black under the Old Régime,” pp. 112-149; Porcher, “Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests,” pp. 70, 107, 284-295, 351, 372, 657.
[642] Clayton, “White and Black under the Old Régime”; Hague, “Blockaded Family,” passim; Miller, p. 229; Jacobs, “Drug Conditions,” p. 16; oral accounts; Porcher, passim.
[643] O. R., Ser. IV, Vol. III, pp. 1073-1075; Jacobs, “Drug Conditions.”