Unruly Women

Paper Summary:

This paper introduces and discusses the book, "Unruly Women: The Politics of Social and Sexual Control in the Old South," by Victoria E. Bynum. Specifically, it looks at why the writer found the book to be interesting and valuable for research on how women lived in the Old South. The writer claims that the book provides insight into the very personal and intimate lives of women that many male historians have not previously documented.

From the Paper:

""Unruly Women" is more than just a book about how women lived in the South in the 19th century. It is a graphic history of how husbands, masters, and owners treated their women. It is a tale of women who did not fit in their society, and how society regarded them. It is the story of black women, and white women, and how they considered each other, and interacted with the men in their lives. It is often fascinating, and often disturbing. Bynum has taken a difficult subject, and made the reader want to learn more. Bynum herself says in the Introduction, "Why should historians interested in the dynamics of power and politics in the antebellum South investigate this politically powerless minority of women? This book addresses these questions by examining three broad categories of women who behaved in atypical fashion" (Bynum 1)."

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