> ><< It was > such a dangerous time for the women and children in that area during the > last part of the war. >> >Many seem to remanticize about the Old South. many picture the Southern Bells >sitting on the veranda in her silks and lace, sipping a Mint Julip while a >slave fans her to keep her cool. Many, probably most, of the southern women >had large families and no slaves. They washed, cooked, cleaned, kept a >kitchen garden, milked the cows, churned the butter. Has anyone ever thought >about wash day? Water brought from the spring or drawn from the well. Fire up >the wash pot. Carry the hot water to the wash tub and scrub the clothes. Then >more water brought to rinse. Then hang them out to dry. Many washed diapers >(nappies) for years. Their life was hard. They also learned to handle a gun >as well as many men in case of gangs coming around to rob, steal, and rape >while the men of the house were in the fields or off to war. All their chores >where done without running water, unless you want to consider grabbing a >bucket and running to the spring and back, no indoor facilities other than >the chamber pot, no electricity, and no telephones. Our children and >grand-children haven't a clue as to what these women did to run a household. >Betty. > right you are Betty. And I have found so often that how the next generation prospered depending so much on if the mother was able to read and write. If so, then I guess she taught her children. If she could not read and write, or if she died while the children were still very young, seems the family did not progress as much. I read where the families going west to Oregon, etc. often carried an math book and a reader - so the parents could teach the children. So add that to the list of jobs for those poor women....teaching the children. Also, often the religious training came from the parents if it was a frontier family, or one in a remote area. I know I could not have none what those women did. And then with all the work and all the kids, the husband comes home and wants to pack up and move.....time and time again in those early years. yeh, it sounds like your Southern woman was a lot like mine. Mary