Southern First Ladies : Culture and Place in White House History

Southern First Ladies explores the ways in which geographical and cultural backgrounds molded a group of influential first ladies. The contributors to this volume use the lens of "Southernness" to define and better understand the cultural attributes, characteristics, actions, and activism of seventeen first ladies from Martha Washington to Laura Bush. The first ladies defined in this volume as Southern were either all born in the South—specifically, the former states of the Confederacy or their slave-holding neighbors like Missouri—or else lived in those states for a significant portion of their adult lives (women like Julia Tyler, Hillary Clinton, and Barbara Bush). Southern climes indelibly shaped these women and, in turn, a number of enduring White House traditions. Along with the standards of proper behavior and ceremonial customs and hospitality demanded by notions of Southern white womanhood, some of which they successfully resisted or subverted, early first ladies including Martha Washington, Dolley Madison, Julia Tyler, and Sarah Polk were also shaped by racially based societal and cultural constraints typical of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some of which have persisted to the present day. The first nine women in this volume, from Martha Washington to Julia Grant, all enslaved others during their lives, inside or outside the White House. Among the seven first ladies in the book's last section, Ellen Wilson, for example, was profoundly influenced by the reformist ethos of the Progressive Era and set an example for activism that five of her Southern successors—Lady Bird Johnson, Rosalynn Carter, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush—all emulated. By contrast, Ellen's immediate successor in the White House, Edith Wilson, enthusiastically celebrated the "Lost Cause." Southern First Ladies is the first volume to comprehensively emphasize the significance of Southernness and a Southern background in the history and work of first ladies, and Southernness' long-standing influence for the development of this position in the White House as well as outside of it. "The American South has long been understood to have a strong sense of place, as seen especially in the arts. This distinctive Southern culture has also had an important influence on the American first ladies, though scholars have largely overlooked the region's role in shaping their legacy. Through nineteen biographical and thematic chapters, Southern First Ladies explores how the cultural background of the Southern first ladies shaped their priorities and responsibilities. With four of the first five presidents from the South, their partners played an important role in the earliest definition and development of what it has meant to be first lady, especially in the ways they wrestled with the traditions of their backgrounds and responded to often confining social expectations. Part one of the volume surveys the Southern first ladies from the Early Republic to the late Reconstruction period. Martha Washington, Dolley Madison, Elizabeth Kortright Monroe, and Julia Tyler defined the Southern first lady, instituting and reinforcing Southern practices and prejudices, especially regarding gender, race, and the institution of slavery. These practices violently tore the country apart during the Civil War, which the book explores by looking at the complex, polarizing figures of Mary Lincoln and Varina Davis. Nancy Beck Young concludes the first part by focusing on the Southern roots of the activism that has come to characterize this office. Part two then examines the activist first ladies of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including the Progressive era first ladies, Ellen and Edith Wilson, the environmentally focused Lady Bird Johnson, and the diplomacy of Rosalynn Carter. The authors also look at those who migrated to the South, such as Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton. Katherine Sibley concludes the volume by reflecting on the activism of the modern first ladies"-- Provided by publisher