Scarlett's Sisters explores the meaning of
nineteenth-century southern womanhood from the vantage point of the
celebrated fictional character's flesh-and-blood counterparts:
young, elite, white women. Anya Jabour demonstrates that southern
girls and young women faced a major turning point when the Civil
War forced them to assume new roles and responsibilities as
independent women.
Examining the lives of more than 300 girls and women between ages
fifteen and twenty-five, Jabour traces the socialization of
southern white ladies from early adolescence through young
adulthood. Amidst the upheaval of the Civil War, Jabour shows,
elite young women, once reluctant to challenge white supremacy and
male dominance, became more rebellious. They adopted the ideology
of Confederate independence in shaping a new model of southern
womanhood that eschewed dependence on slave labor and male
guidance.
By tracing the lives of young white women in a society in flux,
Jabour reveals how the South's old social order was maintained and
a new one created as southern girls and young women learned,
questioned, and ultimately changed what it meant to be a southern
lady.