Women and Marriage in the Civil War Era

Women and Marriage in the Civil War Era

            In reading about the marriage trends during the time of the Civil War a lot of things occurred to me that I had not thought of before. Marriages increased in a time that I would have thought that they would decrease and it happened predominantly in the South. In the article, The Effect of the Civil War on Southern Marriage Patterns, this is attributed to what the authors call ”a marriage frenzy;” something that I would have never considered before but actually makes a lot of sense.

            As more and more southern men went off to fight the war, unmarried southern women became greatly worried about the idea of not getting married or finding an appropriate suitor. It baffles me that at a time of such devastation and loss of life that so many people both men and women alike were so concerned about marriage. Since a lot of women were concerned about getting married the marriage rate actually went up during wartime.

            Women would choose to marry less appropriate suitors because they were worried that they would never marry. Women began marrying younger men that had not been sent out to war or even men from a lower social class because they were so concerned with the idea of becoming a spinster. This is part of the reason for increased marriage. When reading the article and hearing it form this point of view it really makes a lot more sense. 

Although the increase of marriages in civil war time came mostly from women, men were still concerned about never having the chance to marry. Many soldiers that went off to fight were concerned with who would be married when they came back or that their fiancés would reject them if they returned from the war crippled. Both men and women were concerned with marriage during the Civil War Era but it is more so seen in women because of the large number of lives lost, especially in the south, during this time.

While reading this and thinking about what concerns these young men and women have I have to ask myself if I would be feeling the same way. Personally I would hope that I would be more concerned about the lives being lost in the war and the conflicts going on in the country so close to home; but selfishly I wonder if I would have the same thoughts about what my future would be like.

This article stood out to me because I could see myself relating to the young women going through the struggles of trying to figure out what they would do with their lives and at the same time dealing with a Civil War that was certainly impacting their whole lives, including their families.

HACKER, J. DAVID, LIBRA HILDE, and JAMES HOLLAND JONES. "The Effect Of The Civil War On Southern Marriage Patterns." Journal Of Southern History 76.1 (2010): 39-70. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Mar. 2013.