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The South: Culture and History

This library guide is designed for researchers studying any topics related to the South's culture and history.

Southern Women's Studies

African-American Women Online Archival Collections--several letters and autobiographies of African-American women, some of whom grew up in the South.

Beyond Image and Convention: Explorations in Southern Women's History--an ebook about white and African-American women in the South.

Gender Watch--"a full text database of publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas. The database provides in-depth coverage of the subjects that are uniquely central to women's lives, including family, childbirth, birth control, daycare, domestic abuse, work and the workplace, sexual harassment, aging, aging parents, body image, eating disorders and social and societal roles."

H-SAWH Discussing Women and Gender in the U.S. South--a discussion board of the Southern Association of Women Historians.  While you many not want to use the posts as sources, this site is a great tool to help you identify books and articles on Southern women.

Hearts at Home: Southern Women in the Civil War--an online exhibit from the University of Women.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries - "the personal experiences of 1,500 women from colonial times to 1950", many Southerners included.

Southern Women: Oral Histories--"Doctors, lawyers, academics, mill workers, maids, and mothers share their recollections of life and work in the interviews collected here. Many of the women in these interviews were professional or political trailblazers, women who succeeded in male-dominated workplaces or became leaders in civil rights movements. Many were both. And many were women who struggled to feed their families, raise their children, and preserve their communities against the eroding forces of a changing world. This collection highlights the role of women as grassroots activists and the networks they created."

Southern Women Outdoors--"Whether it is hunting, fishing, shooting, hiking, riding, or just relaxing, you have found a place to share your enjoyment. For SWO the outdoors is more than just a hobby, it is a heritage."

Southern Women's Review--offers "poetry/prose, fiction, creative nonfiction/memoirs, and photography" composed by Southern women (or Southern transplants).

Southern Women Trailblazers--"This site uses oral histories to trace ways in which ideas about women’s abilities and social roles changed in the South over the course of the twentieth century"

Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South--an ebook about white and African-American women in the antebellum South.

Women and Social Movements in the United States: 1600 to 2000 - published histories and records of women’s reform organizations throughout the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries; includes The History of Woman Suffrage (6 volumes, 1881-1922); proceedings of the national conventions of female Anti-Slavery societies in the 1830s; proceedings of women’s rights conventions in the 1850s and 1860s; annual reports of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union; and local and national histories of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.