Individual Presentation or Panel Title

Southern Women and Collective Memory of the Civil War

Abstract

With the founding of the women’s group, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (U.D.C.) in 1894, the women of the South began a campaign to change the way the United States viewed the Confederate Army in the fight across the Mason/Dixon Line. Objectives of the U.D.C. that were pushed most vehemently during the organization’s peak of success in the early decades of the twentieth century included: patriotic, memorial, benevolent, historical, and educational. While all of these objectives remain important to the U.D.C. today, in the period from 1900-1930 the purpose of educating both contemporary and future generations about the «true» history of The War Between the States (Southern history’s renaming of the Civil War) became most influential in the efforts of the women of the U.D.C. By creating and endorsing written memoirs, speeches, and even educational texts, the United Daughters of the Confederacy influenced the South’s collective memory of the Civil War.

Presenter Information

Maya Rioux, Hollins University

Location

Goodwin Private Dining Room

Start Date

3-5-2014 2:30 PM

End Date

3-5-2014 3:20 PM

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May 3rd, 2:30 PM May 3rd, 3:20 PM

Southern Women and Collective Memory of the Civil War

Goodwin Private Dining Room

With the founding of the women’s group, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (U.D.C.) in 1894, the women of the South began a campaign to change the way the United States viewed the Confederate Army in the fight across the Mason/Dixon Line. Objectives of the U.D.C. that were pushed most vehemently during the organization’s peak of success in the early decades of the twentieth century included: patriotic, memorial, benevolent, historical, and educational. While all of these objectives remain important to the U.D.C. today, in the period from 1900-1930 the purpose of educating both contemporary and future generations about the «true» history of The War Between the States (Southern history’s renaming of the Civil War) became most influential in the efforts of the women of the U.D.C. By creating and endorsing written memoirs, speeches, and even educational texts, the United Daughters of the Confederacy influenced the South’s collective memory of the Civil War.