Gendering Secession: Women and Politics in South Carolina, 1859- 1861
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University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations Spring 2020 Gendering Secession: Women and Politics in South Carolina, 1859- 1861 Melissa DeVelvis Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation DeVelvis, M.(2020). Gendering Secession: Women and Politics in South Carolina, 1859- 1861. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/5709 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GENDERING SECESSION : WOMEN AND POLITICS IN SOUTH CAROLINA , 1859- 1861 by Melissa DeVelvis Bachelor of Arts University of Georgia, 2014 Bachelor of Arts University of Georgia, 2014 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2020 Accepted by: Mark M. Smith, Major Professor Woody Holton III, Committee Member Marjorie Spruill, Committee Member Sarah Gardner, Committee Member Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by Melissa DeVelvis, 2020 All Rights Reserved. ii DEDICATION To my sisters, Addie and Paige. Agents of chaos. The DeVelvi triumvirate. You've had my heart from the very beginning. Every day I strive to be a person worthy of your love and friendship. The best version of myself is one that you're proud of. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank OneNote, dry shampoo, my dog, hot yoga, and Radiohead. I feel like a certain amount of levity is necessary under the circumstances, as we experience a global pandemic in the form of COVID-19. I defended to screens as we all joined the video conference from our respective quarantines. I will use these acknowledgements, however, to remember that though I am completing this process in solitude, I have never been alone. To my advisor, Mark Smith, who took me in as a floundering second year when he was incredibly busy, and immediately understood and trusted my ideas. He helped weave my historical hunches into thesis statements. He reassured me that one can write about history in an engaging manner without veering into dramatics and allowed me to inject my flowery prose into this dissertation. And yet, I’m sure I held on to several writing samples for far too long in my quest to make them perfect, as he is the most skilled and exacting editor I have ever encountered. He deserves you at your best. To Marjorie Spruill, who advised me as I started this program and certainly did not stop when she retired. Thank you for opening your home (and porch!) to me for much-appreciated advice, both in Columbia and Folly Beach. Thank you for your investment in me as a person. I now have a near-encyclopedic knowledge of U.S. women’s history due to your passion for the subject. I will never, ever, confuse suffragist and suffragette! iv To my committee members, Woody Holton and Sarah Gardner, who more-or-less agreed to read my dissertation with little knowledge of my other pieces. I am thankful for your faith in me and the time spent with my work, as I am a huge admirer of yours. Your comments on my work were extremely helpful, and it was an honor to have such top-tier scholars spend so much time and care with my work. To Steve Berry and Jason Phillips, not only for their critical studies but also their willingness to offer advice when I reached out. Reading and working under Steve Berry taught me how to write. To the generosity of my home for the past five years, the UofSC history department, which has provided me with countless opportunities and critical funding for research and travel. To the professors who had absolutely no ties to my subject matter yet still displayed an interest in me as a person and historian: Andrew Berns, Matt Childs, Kay Edwards, Tom Lekan, and Dinyar Patel. To Lori Carey. To Lori Carey. To Lori Carey. To my darling cohort, my comrades in the struggle, my biggest fans: Jillian Hinderliter, Madeline Steiner, D.J. Polite. Better historians or friends you will never find. Hold on to your cohort, folks, and thanks for the memes. I am blessed to have played a small part in fostering an atmosphere where women support and uplift other women in academia. To my fellow students who came through the department as I stayed and watched with pride as you went on to do great things: Charlotte Adams, Olivia Brown, Jill Found, Patrice Green, Liz Koele, Christian Lear, and Jennifer Melton. To those who came after me who will soon do great things: Zoe Horecny, Nathalia Cocenza, Rebekah Turnmire, and Carlie Todd. To the Atlantic v Reading Group, who read my work with care (Caleb Wittum, Lewis Eliot, and Patrick O’Brien deserve special mention here). To the grad students who came before me—my fairy godparents—who have entertained my persistent questions big or small: Sam King, Megan Bennett, Bingo Gunter, Robert Greene, Stephanie Gray, Janie Campbell, Antony Keane-Dawes. Thank you for explaining comps. I hope so, so dearly that I helped others in return. Jillian, Megan, Sam, and Liz get extra mentions for reading my writing at the drop of a hat. I’m eternally grateful to have you “on retainer.” To all the mentors and friends made at my “side jobs.” To the folks at Historic Columbia, especially Heather Bacon-Rogers. To my second home, the South Caroliniana Library. Not only did I haunt your reading room, but for some reason Graham Duncan and Nathan Saunders let me into the vaults. No one knows more about South Carolina than Graham Duncan (except maybe Allen Stokes!). He also let me process collections directly related to my topic—I cannot be more grateful. To my fellow archivists, “my people,” Taryn, Rose, Nick, Mackenzie, Edward, Todd, and Rebecca: thank you for five years of research, processing, and friendship. Speaking of archives, thank you to everyone at the South Carolina Historical Society, especially the angelically kind Virginia Ellison, for making my monthlong research trip to Charleston incredibly fruitful. The folks at the Kentucky Historical Society changed my life dramatically in a single year. I never had more fun than when I was in Zoom meetings for the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Edition. Patrick Lewis, Chuck Welsko, Emily Moses and Sarah Haywood are people you should get to know. Peter Thomas was the best graduate associate partner in crime. Meeting you all in person at the Southern in Louisville was the cherry on top—thank you for adopting me that weekend. vi To my parents, who gave me the “follow your dreams” spiel but actually believed I would, and could, do just that. If they had reservations when I chose to pursue a PhD in History, they sure didn’t show it. I am so grateful for their steadfast confidence in me, and for the extreme privilege of their loving upbringing. I am one of the few, the proud, to truly enjoy living five minutes from my in-laws. Their home has been a peaceful haven for the past five years. To my sisters, Addie and Paige, I gave the dedication, so let’s not inflate their egos any more. They know they each have pieces of my heart. To my husband, Brian Croft, a scientist who only understands about 25% of the content that I ramble on about. He still says “that’s nice, honey!” at all the right times. I do the same when our roles are reversed. But in all seriousness, thank you for working crazy hours and keeping us fed so that I could write this dissertation in a fugue state, emerging at strange hours from my office in a fluffy robe like a wild hermit. I think you’re neat! As much as I love my spouse, the final shoutout simply must go to my work wife, Jillian Hinderliter. We could probably defend each other’s dissertations at this point. She edits my papers with moments’ notice. She is my greatest advocate and advisor. Her generosity knows no bounds. She still cooks for me even though I no longer live with her. If you see her, please gently remind her to do less, because if not she will help everyone and anyone. I could not have made it through graduate school without her incredible brain and amazing friendship. I am her biggest fan. I don’t know a better person. Again, I don’t know a better person. vii ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the writings and literature surrounding elite, white South Carolina women from 1859 and 1861 to trace their increasing political consciousnesses surrounding their state’s secession and the threat of civil war. Their diaries and letters reveal that though these women and their families were staunch supporters of South Carolina’s secession, women reacted to their new circumstances with fears and misgivings that their male counterparts would not, or could not, express. Elite women harnessed familiar and religious concepts to express political hopes and fears, creating a socially acceptable outlet through which to discuss current electoral politics previously considered improper. In tracing events from John Brown’s Raid to First Bull Run, this dissertation argues that planter women were astute political spectators and analysts, and uses emotions history and literary analysis to shine a light on their political nature in a way that many secession studies, focused on voting men, do not.