1. How did the Civil War affect women living in different areas of the United States?
2. What contributions did women make during this time period? What concerns did they have?
II. New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards
6.1;A1-2. 6.1;A4.
1. Analyze how historical events shape the modern world.
2. Formulate questions and hypotheses from multiple perspectives, using multiple sources.
4. Examine source date within the historical, social, political, geographic, or economic context in which it was created, testing credibility and evaluating bias.
6.4;G1.
1. Analyze key issues, events, and personalities of the Civil War period, including New Jersey’s role in the Abolitionist Movement and the national elections, the development of the Jersey Shore, and the roles of women and children in New Jersey factories.
III. Introduction
Students “may be surprised by the connections between the homefront and the warfront, between civilian and soldiers, and between women and men” during the Civil War. “Although scholars have often ignored women in their military treatments of the Civil War, because they were not on the battlefield, women’s omnipresence on the homefront shaped how officers directed their military campaigns and determined what soldiers would eat and wear. Northern and Southern women’s often-unpaid work as nurses, recruiters, fundraisers, seamstresses, cooks, and laundresses provided essential functions for the waging of war. By performing these tasks, women fulfilled a need for labor and goods that would have otherwise drawn men from their positions on the battlefront. Consequently women, whether they were rich or poor, black or white, Native American or immigrant, Southern or Northern, rural or urban, helped determined the outcome of the war, and, in turn, were shaped by the events around them.” (Source: Women in the American Civil War, Volume I).
In this lesson, students will work together to investigate the different contributions women made during the Civil War. Students will also see how the war and its events shaped the lives of these women. An effort has been made to provide women of different social, economic, geographic, and racial backgrounds. Some of the women are well known, but others have been selected because, although they are not well known, they still represent specific populations who contributed to and were effected by the war.
The two-volume work Women in the American Civil War, edited by Lisa Tendrich Frank, provides the foundation for the lesson. The work begins with contextual essays, such as Abolitionism and Northern Reformers, African-American Women, Confederate Homefront, and Female Combatants, that “outline the general contours of the war, the different types of women, the wartime issues, as well as the experiences of women in particular.” These essays “provide an overview of the female experience during the war.” The essays can be used to place the individual women that the students will be examining into a larger picture. The bulk of the two-volume encyclopedia consists of more than 300 entrees that detail the experiences of women during the American Civil War, without necessarily glorifying them. Additional sources are listed at the end of each entree to allow students to further explore these topics.
IV. Strategy
Prior to beginning the jigsaw lesson, the image of the Gettysburg Civil War Women’s Memorial will be shown. (The hyperlink leads to the background of the memorial, while the graphic above contains illustrations of eight of the nine women who will be discussed during the jigsaw lesson inside of the memorial’s silhouette). Students will brainstorm and come up with ways women may have participated in the war effort.
Students will then be divided into heterogeneously mixed groups of 2-3 students. For this particular lesson plan, nine groups of three will be used. Each group will be assigned one woman to research. They will be given photocopies of the entry about their particular subject from Women in the American Civil War. Some entries are more difficult to read and understand than others. This should be kept in mind when assigning them to specific groups.
After reading their entry, the groups should focus on the following questions and topics. They should write their answers on a large sheet of poster-size paper, which will be provided:
1. Background information about the woman. Where did she live? What groups or categories did she belong to (meaning age, race, geographic location, religious affiliation, marital status, political views, social groups, etc.)?
2. What were her major accomplishments, contributions, or concerns?
3. How did the war affect her materially and emotionally?
4. Why is this person worthy to the study of history?
5. What sources provide information about her? Are there primary sources? If so, what are the values or shortcomings of these sources?
Groups will have approximately 30 minutes to read and evaluate the articles provided. If teachers wish, additional resources or additional time for research can be provided. Once the groups have completed their work, each group will take a turn presenting their woman to the class. Each group will have approximately five minutes to share their findings.
For example, Group 1 will read the entry on Bridget Divers, an Irish immigrant from a working-class background who served as a “daughter” of the First Michigan Cavalry. The group will focus on the five points above and write their findings on the poster paper. The group will then present this information to the rest of the class.
V. Topics
The following women have been selected for this lesson, though there are many others that can be substituted in their place. These have been selected because they show broad perspectives and diverse demographics. The following have been hyperlinked to the corresponding entries from Women in the American Civil War.
1. Bridget Divers: Irish immigrant, “daughter” of First Michigan Cavalry.
2. Mary Boykin Chesnut: Prominent South Carolinian.
3. Mary Ann Ball “Mother” Bickerdyke: Northern nurse.
4. Cornelia Hancock: Abolitionist, reformer, nurse from New Jersey.
5. Nancy Hart: Young Confederate spy.
6. Jennie Hodgers: Union soldier.
7. Lucretia Coffin Mott: Quaker minister, leader in the abolitionist movement, and women’s rights activist.
8. Susie Baker King Taylor: A former slave who worked as a laundress for a Union regiment and nursed soldiers.
9. Loreta Janeta Velazquez: A Cuban-born Confederate soldier.
Alternative topics:
1. Pauline DeCaradeuc Heyward: Young, female diarist from South Carolina.
2. Juliet Ann Opie Hopkins: The “Florence Nightingale” of the Confederacy.
3. Harriet Anne Jacobs: Escaped slave and writer.
4. Sarah Ida Fowler Morgan: A Louisiana girl who was 19 when she began writing one of the most important diaries of the Civil War years.
5. Elizabeth Blackwell: First woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.
6. Amanda Virginia Edmonds: Virginian who wrote about her life and events from 1857-1867, including John Brown’s Raid.
7. Rose O’Neal Greenhow: Southern spy and proponent of Southern rights.
VI. Closure
At the end of the jigsaw presentations, the class will revisit the essential questions. Students will talk about their findings. Students may also want to explore the way history has remembered, or largely ignored some of these women. Why in the past, as written in Women in the American Civil War, did much of the writing on the war push “women to the margins, discussing them only as a sidebar to the ‘important’ work done by men on the battlefields and in the political arena?” The class also may want to examine popular images of women from the Civil Era, such as those fostered by Gone with the Wind.
VII. Assessment
A quiz can be provided at the end of the lesson or at the beginning of the following class. Students will be asked to identify the major contributions of the nine women discussed in class. They will also be asked to explain why these women are important to the study of the Civil War.
