Women were assigned the roles of moral guardians providing stability and shelter for men involved in the increasingly hostile world of business and politics. īy the mid-19 th century the industrializing and urbanizing areas of the North had encouraged the development of a separate sphere ideology molded around the model of the burgeoning middle-class family. The way in which men and women understood their respective roles shaped the way they thought about, participated in, and ultimately remembered the war. ![]() All wars, especially a civil war, challenge deeply held world views and not least among these world views are gender assumptions. Black men and women did not figure into the narrative at all as tenets of appropriate gender roles did not seem relevant to such an underclass. Men went off to fight the enemy, drawing kudos and support from women who would keep the home fires burning. ![]() Thus the Civil War began according to the standard narrative of traditional gender roles. Across the country men rushed to volunteer while women waved flags and kissed them goodbye. After the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861 Americans were electrified.
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