The Journal of Elizabeth Maxwell Alsop Wynne, 1862-1878

The experiences of Southern women during the American Civil War are often represented through the publication of their journals, diaries, and memoirs. This project consists of the transcription and annotation of the journal of Elizabeth (“Lizzie”) Maxwell Alsop Wynne, written from March 4, 1862, through March 20, 1878. During her most intense period of writing from 1862 to 1866, Lizzie Alsop recorded the effects of the American Civil War on an extensive network of friends and family in the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, and at her home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Lizzie’s journal offers valuable insight into the wartime politicization of adolescent women, courtship, religion, the changing relationship between enslaved African Americans and slave-owners, the effect of Union occupation on Southern civilians, and the social ties among family and friends during and after the war. The journal is among the Wynne Family Papers at the Virginia Historical Society (Mss1 W9927 a) and recorded in nine blank books. Transcribed for the first time in its entirety, Lizzie’s journals add her voice to the relatively small number of records left by female adolescents describing the dramatic experiences at the epicenter of civil war and growth into womanhood in its aftermath.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Year dc:date.available

2013

Author dc:creator

• Talkov, Andrew

Contributors dc:contributor

• John Kneebone

• Arts and Humanities
• History

Statement dc:rights

• © The Author

Identifier

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/574

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1573