Gendering Secession explores the lives and politics of South Carolina's elite white women from 1859 to 1861. The political drama that unfolded during the secession crisis of 1860 has long captured our attention, but scant regard has been paid to the secessionist women themselves. These women were astute political observers and analysts who filtered their “improper” political ideas through avenues gendered as feminine and therefore socially acceptable. In recreating the rhythms of the year 1860, Melissa DeVelvis spotlights the moments when women realized that national events were too overwhelming to dismiss. Women processed these changes through religious metaphor and prophecy, comparisons to history and the American Revolution, and language borrowed from popular novels. Drawing from emotions history, literary analysis, and even handwriting analysis, DeVelvis reveals how these fiercely patriotic South Carolinian women responded to threats of disunion with fears and misgivings that men would or could not express.

‘‘Women are like teabags,' Eleanor Roosevelt said. ‘We don't know our true strength until we're in hot water.' In this immersive history, DeVelvis takes us into the emotional worlds of women who had for decades sown the wind and would now reap the whirlwind. As DeVelvis shows, the Civil War involved more than a massive mobilization of women but a massive politicization as well. An intimate portrait of women overtaken by the very events they had themselves helped set in motion, Gendering Secession captures the maelstrom of politics as it feels in real time.'

Stephen Berry - University of Georgia

‘Showcasing distinctive ways that women expressed their political sentiments during a critical period in American history, Gendering Secession will appeal to scholars and students of Civil War studies, southern history, gender studies, and women's history.'

Anya Jabour - author of Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women's Activism in Modern America

‘With empathy and insight, Melissa DeVelvis explains how elite South Carolina women endured secession's seasons and looming war. Her thorough research and close reading of diaries and letters penned by fascinating women yields a profound understanding of them as individuals and as an understudied group of political actors and storytellers. Gendering Secession is a must read for anyone who studies Civil War history and the U.S. South.'

Jason Phillips - author of Looming Civil War: How Nineteenth-Century Americans Imagined the Future