Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1881-09-08
The Women of tho South.
From tho Missouri Republican

|
EDIroR REPUBLICAN,: In recent ed;-
torial, "Ihc women of the South" you fail
IN with tic old argument that Southern
women have always avoided honest labor,
aud have always depended upon tho male
population for support. These statements
are far from truth, wh,o the real facts arc
known. Tho Southern woman does as
much to sustain her family as auy woman
in tho civilized world, aud she has dono oil
kinds OF labor with SO much spirit, 80 much
modcsty, SO much dignity that her efforts
ure to be appauded rather than condemned
That you may see the Southern woman in
her true light, | wish to present few facts
for your consideration.
Tbs middle Glasses at tho South havc
always lnborcd for bread-lhcy have
always gained their support from tho soil.
| Neither tue extremes Of society labor
with their hands to any great extent in
any part of tho worll-mca or women.
They arc not tho exception to tho ru!o at
the South.
The GLASS of women tha. I writo about
constitutes lurso majority Of Southern
women-the great middle class. These
women have always borne their share of tho
burthens and responsibilities of life. They
have always earned their own broai by
honest daily toll, aud they have never been
thought burtken, but rather help, to the
male portion of the population. Southern
women have always been tho manufacturing
portion of that people; they havo always
made n large m";;,ss;;y Of uII tho textiles,
cotton and wcolcu, used by tho family un.
Ill within the last fifteen years, and in
many communities the same thing is now
done by the women.
In tho writer's recollection, and he is
now n young man, nearly all of the do
mastics. WOODEN blankets, wearing apparel,
cotton and woolcu were spua ut home. The
bed clothing Of all kinds, uud, in fact,
every thing used by tho family, except shoes
and hats, We're made ut home by tho wo.
men. They did much artistic work in this
direction, aud have, during the war,
heard Northern men express the greatest
ustonishmcnt ut the noat hnndiwork of
Southern women. The articles are not less
manufactured b. being done at the ho,n es
of the people than if they were made in
foctnrics. The white fcmalc portion Of the
Sou,hcrn people we're the ones who made
these things. The negroes were never cx-
pert mechanics aud they were only used to
make the very eoarsest garment worn. A
quantity Of the c;nthing used by tho negro
population even vas made by white mistress
of the fo,uiIy and her daughters. These
manufactures home manufactures if you
plcasc--wero in every neighborhood in the
South. They were on nearly every farm in
that country; and they were carried on
by tho people who were in possession of
property, and valuable property ut that, for
these same people lost SIl 900, 600, 900
from 1860 TO 1870, and if they had not
possessed they could not have lost it. The
women were tho only laborcrs used and
they made niuctenths of all the goods
ever used in the South prior to 1860
They were regularly made on the farms
where they were consumed No part of
this country has furnished more female
manufacturers than the South has always
furnished.
1t is usual s!ur against Southern pco j.
pic that its white population does not labor
with its hands. Now, i'll 1860 tho negroes
were owned by one fifth Of the white popu-
lntoH. The other four iifths had their own
labor to perform and the census of that
year shove that country to huvo possessed
in valuable property aud franchises as
much per capita as any other portion of
this country leaving out the two then
money ccntres Boston and New York
Their women helped 10 every way except
in the field digging in the ground to mako
this wealth and they could not have done
more than they did with tho machinery
they had. 1t took the whole time Of the
female population to make tho material
from its raw state into cloth aud from cloth
into clothing. They thus saved tho
money made by the man and accumulated
it for use.
| At Augusta, Ga, tho people arc only
changing from private homo manufactures,
and they thus adapt themselves to the
changed denaud for woman's service.
What has been done ut Augusta, can and
will be done in every Southcrn community.
Every Southern fcmalo Of this class desires
to help the males in tho lifo struggle and
they will do their duty as they always have
done it..
The Southern woman hos always been
true to her home, her husband, her chl.
dron, her relatives. She has never hcsi :.
tutcd, sho will never hesitate, to devote her
life, her energy, her intellect, to the ones
sho loves The women of tho middle GLASS
at tho South have always labored, thoy will
always labor to fulfill their part in creation,
and will do it as they have always done,
modestly and unassumingly. No people
have done more to bring prosperity out of
adyersity than they, since 1865, aud their
success has been largely duo to tho hope