Virginia before the Civil War - Education
- Daily life for a white woman
- Daily life for a white man
- Daily life for a slave
- More resources
Education
School was an important topic in the lives of most children. Few states provided universal public education, but in communities throughout the nation, local church congregations and civic-minded citizens started schools. The teacher was often left largely to his or her own devices and the day-to-day running of the schools was based more on the teacher’s practices than the board’s policies. The agricultural economy in both the North and the South dictated school schedules, and children were excused from school during the months when they were needed to work in the fields. The modern practice of closing schools for long summer breaks is a holdover from this practice.
The schools were generally small, and often several grade levels were taught in the same room. Testing was often oral, and children memorized and recited more often than they wrote. Indeed, there is some evidence that the phrase “toeing the line” relates to the practice of making children stand at a line on the floor when reciting their lessons.
Corporal punishment was used, and even encouraged. Lucy Chase traveled south to teach in a school for free blacks. She related in a letter that the mothers frequently encouraged her to use corporal punishment:
Norfolk, Va. 7/1/64
...Many a father and mother have begged me to beat their children at school. “Spare the rod and spoil the child,” is on every mother‘s tongue. “Now you whip her and make a good girl out of her,” the kindest mother says when she trusts her sweetest child to us...
In general, students attended school for fewer years than do modern students. However, a brief survey of school books from the period indicates that their reading books advanced through several modern grade levels in any given year. By the fifth year of school, students were reading material at a level which is today considered college level.
There were also academies which provided intensive educational experiences for boys and girls aged thirteen to twenty. The children of wealthy families might board at the academy, while children from the area were day students. These academies offered a variety of classes. John B. Cary’s Hampton, Virginia Male and Female Academy, for example, offered classes in Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, as well as chemistry, natural philosophy, and astronomy. As at most academies, the boys and girls were kept separated at Hampton.
At many Southern academies, discipline was maintained among the boys through a military-type training which well prepared them for military service. It not only prepared the students, but also the faculty. Indeed, John B. Cary’s academy closed during the war, as 20% of the faculty, and 25% of the students served together in a unit which became the 32nd Virginia Infantry. (The Civil War had a smaller impact on Northern academies.)
A family sending a child to an academy was paying tuition and, often, boarding fees. In addition the family was doing without any income that the child might have made at a part-time job. Thus students who boarded at and attended schools like Cary’s Hampton academy were the exception rather than the rule. —Adapted by Civil War Trust from An Introduction to Civil War Civilians by Juanita Leisch (Thomas Publications, 1994).
Daily life for a white woman
Young women in the 1860s were largely unable to participate in politics or be heard on virtually anything consequential. Research has shown they primarily used diaries and letters to express their feelings and thoughts; for example, Eugenia Miller Thackston, a Confederate of Barsboursville, Virginia often wrote of the difficulty of finding "Negro help", inflation, and the uneasiness and insecurity the Civil War presented. Three-hundred miles away in Ravenswood, Virginia, Henrietta Barr wrote of her fear of the Yankees' armed men and the horrors of war.
These women lived in a time period when their proper sphere was considered at home. "Life quite naturally centered on family," wrote Anne Firor Scott, author of The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics, 1830-1930. True women shaped their life around domesticity and upholding tradition and values in an increasingly changing world. Their role was to guide and protect their families from vice. If ever a women acted aggressively, it should be only out of necessity and survival in the face of a violent and difficult war. Although these ideals were perpetually upheld everywhere, Virginian women more closely followed Northern attitudes than those of the traditional Deep South. A variety of sources point to more independent-minded, self-conscious, assertive, and even "protofeminist" tendencies in Virginia; there are accounts of women refusing to be cowed by abusive husbands, gaining a sense of individual power and autonomy through religion, and having more egalitarian marriages. Some Virginian women even moved to the public sphere, supporting the temperance movement and anti-slavery. A seemingly conventional young Virginian woman once wrote about her doubts about marriage and her determination to lead an independent life. Although these examples are in part a product of wartime instability, they were widespread and typical across the state.
Young women in the 1860s depended on family and friends for companionship, entertainment, and even their very existence. They lived at home until marriage, or if single, until death. Women generally respected their fathers as authority figures, but also as their sole source of financial support. They depended on their fathers for all their material needs--everything from tuition money to a new pair of gloves. While some young women nurtured close and loyal relationships with their fathers, most daughters were emotionally dependent on their mothers. In a study of the personal writings of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American women, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg found in close mother-daughter relationships, "Daughters routinely expressed anxiety in cases of their mother's ill health and concern for her cares."
Relationships between sisters were usually affectionate and enduring; on the occasion sisters were parted (usually by marriage) correspondence was exchanged often. Brothers held a particularly special place in the hearts of sisters. Diaries and letters expressed their fear for their brothers' lives during the war but also of much pride and encouragement. Attitudes towards their brothers bordered on maternal. Proper etiquette books informed women that one of their most important functions was "to provide a constant source of idealism to her brothers. It was of utmost concern that the sister tend to her brothers' needs." Relatives were considered less important than immediate family, although visits to them were made often.
If family was considered paramount, personal relationships were extremely important to young women. Sweethearts and best friends were a source of affection, excitement, love, and disappointment. Male friendships were not considered a correct relationship for women, although they did exist. A young women usually had many girlfriends. These relationships usually held little pettiness and instead were intimate and supportive, perhaps strengthened by shared troubles and adventures during a difficult time. Courtships were sometimes a source of competition and animosity.
Younger women in particular held a fascination with men, groomed as they were to consider marriage and love as their one imperative. Etiquette dictated much of these interactions. Popular books told women "to present themselves in society as warm, self-controlled, and chaste" to the point of not permitting a man to squeeze or hold her hand "without showing that it displeased her by instantly withdrawing it." Correspondence was important and indicative of courting; a woman might be insulted if a beau did not ask to correspond with her when he went away to school or war. The amount of beaux a young lady had indicated her popularity. Flirtation was casual unless it led to love and marriage. A young woman's husband would become extremely significant; in fact he became the most significant male figure in her life. Marrying and having children were considered the ultimate joy and fulfillment. Although women were in many ways constrained to cater to their husband's needs and play the role of the selfless wife, Virginian women were not mere putty in their husband's hands. Emotionally committed and more egalitarian marriages were widespread.
A woman's education perpetuated her domestic role and emphasized the importance of religion in her life. Girls from wealthy families attended female seminaries or boarding schools. They took classes such as English literature, French, Latin, music, logic, rhetoric, theology, vocal music, chemistry, and gymnastics (although physical activity was recommended, it was considered controversial.) Certain classes were often given domestic labels. Chemistry was justified as useful to cooking.
Education was considered a background for self-improvement. One of the most important examples of self-improvement a woman could partake in was reading. Women of the nineteenth century read histories, ancient philosophies, religious biographies, poetry, plays (specifically Shakespeare), and novels (such as Dickinson and Brontë). Light novels were not recommended by educators because they interfered with "serious piety."
Sewing was the most important and useful skill a young woman would learn. A woman who did not know how to sew was said to be as deficient in her education as a man who could not write. Women stitched and knitted for themselves and others during the war, often for their family and beaux in the army, and because inflation and scarcity of fabrics necessitated improvisation. Women also cooked, served, and cleaned, but in upper-class families these chores were completed by slaves. They also taught family and friends who could not afford seminaries or boarding schools or were not of age yet to be sent away.
Young women organized and participated in many social activities to fill their free time. Dancing was enjoyed and balls were considered favorably. They often served as fundraisers and were used to express and celebrate patriotic sentiments during the war. Dances, balls, and benefit invitations were only turned down if necessary. Weddings were eagerly anticipated and occurred often before men were sent to war, although the economy limited their extravagance.
Visiting was also a frequent social activity of a young lady, whether it be at a friend's house for afternoon tea or for an extended period of time at her aunt's a state away. Visiting was a means of communication in a world without daily mail or the telephone. Carroll Smith-Rosenberg described it as an "endless trooping of women to each others' homes for social purposes."
Women also enjoyed shopping. They played games such as chess, checkers, backgammon, charades, group singing, and dominoes. Outside, they could picnic, horse-ride, play croquet, etc.
A woman's most important activity was through her church. Religion was not only a source of strength but also a way to operate outside the confines of a woman's proper sphere at home. Harriet Martineau, a European visitor and commentator on nineteenth-century America, wrote that American women "pursued religion as an occupation because they were constrained from exercising their full range of moral, intellectual, and physical powers in other ways." Young ladies were therefore active in church, often organizing prayer meetings, choir practices, and teaching Sunday School. Church activities were also an opportunity to socialize with other girls and with men. —Adapted from Five Tri-state Women During the Civil War: Day-to-Day Life by Claudia Lynn Lady and Late Antebellum Virginia Reconsidered by Daniel W. Crofts.
Daily life for a white man
Honor and reputation were the primary concerns of every young male growing up in the 1860s. The bulk of responsibility landed on the father's shoulders to shape his son into a respectable, accomplished man, worthy of a good marriage and capable of future prosperity. Sons looked to their fathers for approval and guidance in upholding reputation and to their mothers and sisters for nurturing, support, encouragement, and further guidance. Vices young men faced were excessive gambling and drinking, abandoning their responsibilities such as work and study, and if in the city, brothels. (Any respectable man would not dare to frequent a brothel or be caught at one; although frowned upon, transgressions were forgiven.)
Chivalry and honor played an important role in the life of a Southern man. Gentlemen must be courteous, truthful, and honorable. Hospitality and generosity were of utmost importance. The ideal man respected his family and treated women with high regard. Strength and courage were glorified. A man was to defend the family name, with his life if necessary. A personal insult to an individual or his family would necessitate a fight, if not a duel.
Most white male Virginians sought intimacy with their spouses and emotional fulfillment from marriage, appearing to have made greater psychological investment in their marriages than in their friendships with other men. No doubt they expected their wives to cater to their needs and play dependent, self-sacrificing roles. They patronized often-younger spouses and assumed their inability to function outside the female sphere. However, Virginia had more companionate marriages than those in which uncompromising patriarchs lorded over overburdened wives to lead estranged lives.
Young men of wealthy families were sent away to boarding schools (or attended them during the day) and later to college. If their family could not afford schooling, young men attended school locally but more often worked in town and/or apprenticed in a trade. Some sought employment elsewhere. Iron, coal, salt, and wheeling (producing railroad iron, nails, and glass) were usual pursuits for young, middle-class men. Other professions included trading, trapping, working as a field hand, craftsmen, pastors, and priests. Wealthier men aspired to be business-owners, politicians, lawyers, professors, doctors, etc. However, these professions were rare outside of cities. In southwestern Virginia, particularly Richmond, iron manufacturing (for rapidly expanding railroads), flour mills, and the packaging of tobacco products were popular employment.
Fewer than half of adult white males listed in occupational records for the Virginian 1850 census identified themselves as "farmers" or "planters," a notable decrease from the past century. However, despite the downturn of agricultural pursuits, Virginia remained top tobacco-growing state and ranked in leading states in producing grains, corn and wheat, selling livestock and seafood, and shipping garden crops up east coast. Outside the Richmond area lived primarily yeomen farmers and a few plantation owners (the wealthiest and most influential demographic). This area also held the highest concentrations of slaves (the numbers of which were comparable to the Deep South) which were primarily owned by white men.
Politics were a very popular topic among men and often discussed passionately and at length. Socio-economically speaking, nearly one-third of all Virginians lived in counties that included a significant town or city and were exposed to urban markets. Virginians welcomed railroads, steamships, and other trappings of modernity, however still felt estranged from the social order of northern capitalism. Industrial activity benefited from the rapid expansion of railroad lines. The business was "tremendously robust" and there was much competition between white men demanding skilled jobs and higher wages to set them apart from immigrants (many German at the time) and slave laborers.
This also contributed to widening class divisions between white men in Virginia and throughout the country. Abysmally low labor wages for middle class white men, immigrants and hired slave laborers knocked rungs out of ladder of upward mobility. In turn, less accomplished white males felt estranged from their wealthier counterparts.
A very pro-southern Democratic party dominated Virginian politics in the 1860s and held comfortable majorities in legislature. They were pro-slavery and disdained "government activity in general and taxes in particular," being more interested in upholding status quo and eventually separating from the Union than much else. In general they believed all white men were equally respected and enjoyed equal opportunity. Virginian Democrats were mostly wealthy land-owners with many slaves and among the most proslavery politicians in the country.
Opposite the Democrats was the Whig party, an antislavery, pro-economic and moral development (called for changes in banks, internal improvement, manufacturing, education, and temperance) movement that by the 1860s was all but obsolete in legislature, although forms of the party and its ideals existed under various smaller parties such as the Know-Nothings (1855-57) and the Opposition party (1859). None of these parties held any majority in the 1860s.
Men enjoyed leisurely activities like hunting, horse-riding, fishing, reading, writing, etc. and often gambled (usually on horses), played card games (poker, twenty-one, keno, euchre), and participated in baseball and cricket. On a daily basis they worked their trade, be it farming or otherwise. If they were of the upperclass, they managed their business and affairs. Drinking and cigar-smoking (in moderation) was popular among men. They also took part in church activities and attended dances, balls, and benefits.
—Adapted from The Plantation & Chivalry at ushistory.org and Late Antebellum Virginia Reconsidered by Daniel W. Crofts.
Daily life for a slave African Americans in the 1860s were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, inside homes, out in the fields, and in industry and transportation.
Though slavery had such a wide variety of faces, the underlying concepts were always the same. Slaves were considered property, and they were property because they were black. Their status as property was enforced by violence -- actual or threatened. People, black and white, lived together within these parameters, and their lives together took many forms.
Enslaved African Americans could never forget their status as property, no matter how well their owners treated them. But it would be too simplistic to say that all masters and slaves hated each other. Human beings who live and work together are bound to form relationships of some kind, and some masters and slaves genuinely cared for each other. But the caring was tempered and limited by the power imbalance under which it grew. Within the narrow confines of slavery, human relationships ran the gamut from compassionate to contemptuous. But the masters and slaves never approached equality.
The standard image of Southern slavery is that of a large plantation with hundreds of slaves. In fact, such situations were rare. Fully 3/4 of Southern whites did not even own slaves; of those who did, 88% owned twenty or fewer. Whites who did not own slaves were primarily yeoman farmers. Outside the Richmond area lived primarily yeomen farmers and a few plantation owners (the wealthiest and most influential demographic). This area also held the highest concentrations of slaves (the numbers of which were comparable to the Deep South) which were primarily owned by white men.
Practically speaking, the institution of slavery did not help these people. And yet most non-slaveholding white Southerners identified with and defended the institution of slavery. Though many resented the wealth and power of the large slaveholders, they aspired to own slaves themselves and to join the privileged ranks. In addition, slavery gave the farmers a group of people to feel superior to. They may have been poor, but they were not slaves, and they were not black. They gained a sense of power simply by being white.
Virginia's population was half African American slaves before the Civil War; the state had the largest total population and largest slave population of any southern state. East of Blue Ridge and especially in southern Piedmont, Virginia had concentrations of slaves as large as those in plantation regions of Deep South. Most of these plantations had fifty or fewer slaves, although the largest plantations have several hundred. Many plantations raised several different kinds of crops. Virginia slaves raised tobacco primarily, but also grew grains, corn and wheat
Besides planting and harvesting, there were numerous other types of labor required on plantations and farms. Enslaved people had to clear new land, dig ditches, cut and haul wood, slaughter livestock, and make repairs to buildings and tools. In many instances, they worked as mechanics, blacksmiths, drivers, carpenters, and in other skilled trades. Black women carried the additional burden of caring for their families by cooking and taking care of the children, as well as spinning, weaving, and sewing.
Some slaves worked as domestics, providing services for the master's or overseer's families. These people were designated as "house servants," and though their work appeared to be easier than that of the "field slaves," in some ways it was not. They were constantly under the scrutiny of their masters and mistresses, and could be called on for service at any time. They had far less privacy than those who worked the fields.
Because they lived and worked in such close proximity, house servants and their owners tended to form more complex relationships. Black and white children were especially in a position to form bonds with each other. In most situations, young children of both races played together on farms and plantations. Black children might also become attached to white caretakers, such as the mistress, and white children to their black nannies. Because they were so young, they would have no understanding of the system they were born into. But as they grew older they would learn to adjust to it in whatever ways they could.
The diets of enslaved people were inadequate or barely adequate to meet the demands of their heavy workload. They lived in crude quarters that left them vulnerable to bad weather and disease. Their clothing and bedding were minimal as well. Slaves who worked as domestics sometimes fared better, getting the castoff clothing of their masters or having easier access to food stores.
The heat and humidity of the South combined with poor medical training created health problems for everyone living there. Unsanitary conditions, inadequate nutrition and unrelenting hard labor made slaves highly susceptible to disease. Illnesses were generally not treated adequately, and slaves were often forced to work even when sick.
One of the worst conditions that enslaved people had to live under was the constant threat of sale. Even if their master was "benevolent," slaves knew that a financial loss or another personal crisis could lead them to the auction block. Also, slaves were sometimes sold as a form of punishment. And although popular sentiment (as well as the economic self-interest on the part of the owners) encouraged keeping mothers and children and sometimes fathers together, these norms were not always followed. Immediate families were often separated. If they were kept together, they were almost always sold away from their extended families. Grandparents, sisters, brothers, and cousins could all find themselves forcibly scattered, never to see each other again. Even if they or their loved ones were never sold, slaves had to live with the constant threat that they could be.
African American women had to endure the threat and the practice of sexual exploitation. There were no safeguards to protect them from being sexually stalked, harassed, or raped, or to be used as long-term concubines by masters and overseers. The abuse was widespread, as the men with authority took advantage of their situation. Even if a woman seemed agreeable to the situation, in reality she had no choice. Slave men, for their part, were often powerless to protect the women they loved.
The drivers, overseers, and masters were responsible for plantation discipline. Slaves were punished for not working fast enough, for being late getting to the fields, for defying authority, for running away, and for a number of other reasons. The punishments took many forms, including whippings, torture, mutilation, imprisonment, and being sold away from the plantation. Slaves were even sometimes murdered. Some masters were more "benevolent" than others, and punished less often or severely. But with rare exceptions, the authoritarian relationship remained firm even in those circumstances.
In addition to the authority practiced on individual plantations, slaves throughout the South had to live under a set of laws called the Slave Codes. The codes varied slightly from state to state, but the basic idea was the same: the slaves were considered property, not people, and were treated as such. Slaves could not testify in court against a white, make contracts, leave the plantation without permission, strike a white (even in self-defense), buy and sell goods, own firearms, gather without a white present, possess any anti-slavery literature, or visit the homes of whites or free blacks. The killing of a slave was almost never regarded as murder, and the rape of slave women was treated as a form of trespassing.
Whenever there was a slave insurrection, or even the rumor of one, the laws became even tighter. At all times, patrols were set up to enforce the codes. These patrols were similar to militias and were made up of white men who were obligated to serve for a set period. The patrols apprehended slaves outside of plantations, and they raided homes and any type of gathering, searching for anything that might lead to insurrection. During times of insurrection -- either real or rumored -- enraged whites formed vigilance committees that terrorized, tortured, and killed blacks.
While most slaves were concentrated on the plantations, there were many slaves living in urban areas or working in rural industry. Although over 90% of American slaves lived in rural areas, slaves made up at least 20% of the populations of most Southern cities. In Charleston, South Carolina, slaves and free blacks outnumbered whites. Many slaves living in cities worked as domestics, but others worked as blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, bakers, or other tradespeople. In Virginia, many slaves worked on the railroads or in mining. Often, slaves were hired out by their masters, for a day or up to several years. Sometimes slaves were allowed to hire themselves out. Urban slaves had more freedom of movement than plantation slaves and generally had greater opportunities for learning. They also had increased contact with free black people, who often expanded their ways of thinking about slavery.
Slaves resisted their treatment in innumerable ways. They slowed down their work pace, disabled machinery, feigned sickness, destroyed crops. They argued and fought with their masters and overseers. Many stole livestock, other food, or valuables. Some learned to read and write, a practice forbidden by law. Some burned forests and buildings. Others killed their masters outright -- some by using weapons, others by putting poison in their food. Some slaves committed suicide or mutilated themselves to ruin their property value. Subtly or overtly, enslaved African Americans found ways to sabotage the system in which they lived.
Thousands of slaves ran away. Some left the plantation for days or weeks at a time and lived in hiding. Others formed maroon communities in mountains, forests or swamps. Many escaped to the North. There were also numerous instances of slave revolts throughout the history of the institution. Even when slaves acted in a subservient manner, they were often practicing a type of resistance. By fooling the master or overseer with their behavior, they resisted additional ill treatment.
Enslaved African Americans also resisted by forming community within the plantation setting. This was a tremendous undertaking for people whose lives were ruled by domination and forced labor. Slaves married, had children, and worked hard to keep their families together. In their quarters they were able to let down the masks they had to wear for whites. There, black men, women, and children developed an underground culture through which they affirmed their humanity. They gathered in the evenings to tell stories, sing, and make secret plans. House servants would come down from the "big house" and give news of the master and mistress, or keep people laughing with their imitations of the whites.
It was in their quarters that many enslaved people developed and passed down skills which allowed them to supplement their poor diet and inadequate medical care with hunting, fishing, gathering wild food, and herbal medicines. There, the adults taught their children how to hide their feelings to escape punishment and to be skeptical of anything a white person said. Many slave parents told their children that blacks were superior to white people, who were lazy and incapable of running things properly.
Many slaves turned to religion for inspiration and solace. Some practiced African religions, including Islam, others practiced Christianity. Many practiced a brand of Christianity which included strong African elements. Most rejected the Christianity of their masters, which justified slavery. The slaves held their own meetings in secret, where they spoke of the New Testament promises of the day of reckoning and of justice and a better life after death, as well as the Old Testament story of Moses leading his people out of slavery in Egypt. The religion of enslaved African Americans helped them resist the degradation of bondage.
—Adapted from Antebellum slavery at pbs.org.
More resources- American Civil War Overview offers a detailed timeline of the war + sections on war away from the battlefield, solider life, and family life on farms and plantations.
|
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
questions, comments, suggestions? don't hesitate. reply here!