A Word on Words; 2339; Margaret Ripley Wolfe

the world and were programmed to leave the world of books and their other this week martin wolf talks about the waters of meeting your host for a way downwards mr johnson intolerant chairman of the freedom forum's first amendment center at vanderbilt university hello i am john simple welcome once again to word on words i guess them has written a book that i come in to all readers unrest in history and the evolution of the struggle of women for equality and and freedom welcome margaret ripley wolf two word on words thank you mr single sliced and here in the i am what the menu on and on the topic of books to read on this program all time and i picked up this book a university of kentucky press another story about the struggle women a real struggle was been told and i though reid

and i approached it would be in close it with great joy congratulations on a real story thank you that's what opera wants to hear well i would say that view israel uses program no and i don't the book's sometime something i think about it on a pleasant surprise it was three right so well in this book is chock full of anecdotes that make interesting sidebars in a fascinating theme a wonderful story let's begin with the title you kicked out of those occasions i did the publisher wasn't so terribly happy about it said no one would know what was about the perseverance led a good good night i think in the introduce you tell us why it makes sense that makes real sense of the problem that about

about again and again well i walked in a number of different types of sources for this book and i've not confine myself just documents i wanted to look at the south for from different perspectives and i especially or via that wonderful boy and jericho by james dickey how they'll run riders ride i've been moved by the ap and there's an open there's lines but dickey about how we invite your women here in the south africa are beautiful lines so as i began to try to up with a suitable title for this book i began to think about cho about jericho about biblical analogies intercourse biblical knowledge is that the news with the south many different authors and and spokesman and i thought well why not canaan cannon symbolizes promise and certainly for women who've been activists in the south has always been that hope for the future hope for a better way and that i use

daughters because i certainly have the the concept of patriarchy to their wealth in this book and you do an either you do you on a video of them goes he cato story of the evolution alvaro someone in their struggle to deal with their own death without dealing with a patriarchal system that rules out dominated them in a recent signings and to get them you get a sense though that that southern women had more overcome was it because they were stuck on a pedestal i think it's the intensity of the patriarchal system in south patriarchy was present in the north also if you're out but i think it's the level it's a matter of degree and

courts on the way i define southern women as those women who were residents our states or parts of states that are still practicing slavery the term civil war or women from elsewhere who spends significant portions of their lives and sight but down i think as far as patriarch in south is concerned it's simply a matter of degree and i think it's a much more intense patriarch in south i think it's woven in with the institution of slavery and i think it's woven in with the persistence of oral traditions and south after that eroded i'm a bit more health where you take this back to really late sixteenth century late late sixteen hundreds early seventies on the right end and the first surprise i got a book came goes you tell me something i never thought i had thought that i would have known it and first thing was that most of settlers who came over were male few of them had wives not inevitably by seventeen hundreds of the women

mobile a small element came over is as was a small group sent over as you call the french similar correctional girls girls have been in trouble than it's a moment of panic the french settlers who we are native american women indian women that slave woman right so you you really had from the outset soul amalgam of three races are women some soul over from europe incomes to mate with with european men who are your neighbors who we are an indian quo prince's it was so sweet and finally the slave women and i'm a lot of society as you point out began right here in this are probably elsewhere about they've gotten slave trade more and more nominees others that is that actually i think your description is accurate and i've tried very hard to to represent native american women fairly as

well as african american women and women of european descent and in as much as that is possible given the sources i've tried to do that throughout this book i think that's one of the strengths of it that it cuts across racial and ethnic groups and it cuts also across class this is not just a book about prominent southern women it's about the ordinary and the extraordinary williams read you something you wrote because because that jump off the page made them to sending their eighteenth centuries time or religion and no i'm hardly represented an orderly pristine english society instead of reality overall chaotic society convulsed by pensions associate class gender and race all a common human human frailties manifest themselves female colbert's slander their own kind of gossiped about their neighbors and for a gated with willing partners not the last point i skipped a little bit pre marital sex excited little attention

of their rights or a pregnant on their wedding day non marital sex that might produce a job byrd need to require public century authorities mete out punishment so public whittington find sometimes they forced offenders to appear before church congregations draped in white sheets and clutching wide lawns and then you go through some of the acts that were pairs to deal with all the problem right at the problem being set now it's not surprising to me that we see the south today as well as more quote tear down upon the puritans were nor what is more puritanical and other parts of the nation given those beginnings right and the soft on october unless they start list and they saw those are still it's really a central people they signed enjoy hearing about the escapades of her neighbors lying and boasting

about their own by si southerners are earthly spirited sensual people but then after the barrio a colonial period by the seventeen foreigners are sites ending third isn't sending forties i came in four out of religious revival as in a good a whitening effect and southerners the presbyterians country stronghold all right and consequently i think you know really that religiosity has worked its way and the lines that i'm not sure it's always have a growing building with her behavior but i felt guilty about well they felt and feel guilty about an end that's sellers man end and when the ride well then then we began to find i guess it's for new times evolved a week we came to find that some women were given a stereotype and them and well into the civil war that spirit

that well into the her early years of this century those stereotypes that stereotype forever talk a little bit about this character i really think this concept of the subtle it had its origins are whipping virginia cavaliers i think they brought us our style life certain codes of conduct please law deals rather than realities but nonetheless that's unattended and the stone permeated all classics and in some respects i think really this myth of the subtle it prescribe the women who were middle class or even lower class women more than it did the elite and of course there's always the situation where you have ideals were you have codes of conduct or you have books on how to behave people are always live that way about most of them said that they still sets a certain kind of standard and the amazon question that that deal has loomed over southern women throughout much of their

history it as end and it has meant that you'd expect a cell and when a woman to act a certain way in every certain circumstance right now you also point out that there've been exceptions to realize weren't throw a couple names at you margaret brent your member margaret brent yes actors is as executives execute tricks for for the government would ride and she was very prominent long a woman exceptional but eventually sort of our whilst the ballet and settle down and lead of a fairly tranquil life but i'm quite a prominent role for a while perhaps or exceeded her rightful authority and suppose that's a sort of put their clients' demanded the right to vote she alerted a mutiny by going back to britain and them and rays include come back and help her family that was there was was a barker was here and i was the one that was francis marion mary margaret brent

averted a mutiny requested their right to vote making all summer in all likelihood the first woman to do so in english island right and then there's a smirk when the network that's right sarah harrison refused to take a vow of obedience at her wedding i can't believe that the preacher asked her again and again she would respond the violet as well along with rose are moaning for their work well in florida not conforming did not inform probably more than we'd ever met the other at the other they're that the other antidote that the us stands on the front on that and that iraq was a of offenses part customs right and you have a wonderful story in there about france's far customers whose husband was known they had a terrible time going right struggle

and i run dry when one by hand with horses and carrots and she asked him where was heaven as a drone the horses and just that day literally literally and he responded to hell madam and she says that span any places better than i it's several way it's actually again you read through this story from iowa the days the country was founded he read through the story you find that in all crises wars depression strikes labor disputes the struggle for equality the right to vote so dominant role in every

crisis this this the model of southern womanhood comes down from a pedestal and performs yeomans your women's service with strength and courage character great integrity does that mean does that mean that that the steel was always there that the that that strength was always there and and that putting them in the household and surrounding him was at least the image of comfort and fiery and and courtroom and ease we really a myth that that was indeed hard work and that it was a struggle to live that life and of the stroke victory live that life as part and fear part of patriarchy and that and that when the crises game women when given the opportunity met the challenge i think that's the

absolute truth the overriding thing that same survey was seven when the overriding fact is the enormous strength southern when nothing could be farther from the truth and then this notion that there are very good and for abbas and certainly southern women going majority of prehistoric have always worked very very hard and i was training of the plantation when even when they manage towns where there were servants and slaves that could be a very difficult life and that's certainly been adequately demonstrated i had an enormous amount of responsibility four lives around them now the neighbors weren't acquitted themselves very well some of course abuse their slides down where the frustrations i might have done some of those sleighs and they are maron abuse them in some way but i think the overriding factor comes during this is this tremendous stress of seven when you mention the abuse and that rings a

contemporary role again again throughout this history there are anecdotes demonstrate the drunken husbands of them being there was an amusing at least sends this country was founded exact then the end and those those set tragic stories so now become so commonplace that it's become a national problem i can tell how much of that was covered up in days gone by simply because it wasn't thought well i can either aren't really what historians have areas the air is the instances where people actually buy their way into the court system or whether something like this was recorded and ari that's been preserved or and correspondence you know you're in your office of history and you do

research and if a non research on his book the patients are interesting for me read it but i have a sense that a drug research to get that if you read the mainstream history book as a record of the year and the life in evolution this country all i've never show south you'd miss this aspect of our history because mostly history books except the list as reality was thank god even when the myth has not accepted as reality and others tend to just ignore half the people at least in the history that was done i went to like a generation of medical about ninety sixty or so out when the socal new social history began have an influence in this country it's it's also new anymore but it really had tremendous impact on

american history as it had had in europe still has and it gave rise to the study of immigrants the immigrant experience and then the groups the african americans so women it has vastly enriched our national history but interestingly enough some of those old studies reveal more about women than more like to sun without actually looking up but dumb rate at running through those chapters can you ride no reformation what this test is a little imagination creativity it and asked the war or the women don't get and some of it is dire it's just a matter of well of looking forward and thinking about and that they did go in behind that the right course is to raise our flesh about let me just throw a few names in the book go at you and let you react to them and tell us a little bit about why you wanted i'm in the book sojourner truth well sojourner truth of course has that

marvelous those speeches are done always things and push elaborate send an owl woman and sojourner truth is not a southern woman but maybe will bring shias because she had been a slave or actual issue of the slave in the state of new york but i've included are just sort of set that record straight plus she also has a tomorrow a statement made she's only one of three become self when it was so jarring that's right any i am claims and clay was involved in antebellum some disco workers pitching slams on her own family's plantation at the initiative and she cut education slaves was import raw while many people thought in the kitchen and they've been into a dominance of the drive time as i'm sort of major figures simply just cannot be left out she really say not only are self inflicted but then others of so many others to

monterey how there's that story about civil war and this is in kentucky which of course was the bird about it anyway and shoot schiller has been rants he was pro union she was exactly she looks out saying this doctor has been arrested he's walking along between two soldiers union soldier guarding him and she says tammie look like jesus christ with when the two theories up a visit with a criminal folklore she's a tennis and from memphis attempted to cast a vote late in seventy six was certainly one of the early suffragist and toss a rope roger tilton my ride ride she rented theater announced in memphis that she planned to vote for tilden an end it actually cast a ballot which was probably remain vigilant they let a vote right now isn't tolerated because of their social standing ida b wells wildly wells

and another woman out of mississippi and west tulsa an african american woman who dared speak out against one thing as a journalist and his laugh literally was the steak he went north and was also involved in the suffrage campaign will they use everyday and our family comes to minors those them you'd never imagine out at parades when coltrane wilson i mean there was there was somebody who'd been placed on a pedestal and dry ms dudley head and talk about hurlbert watches and charming beautiful woman and she marched in suffered sprite can tell us at with her children and there was a very important person in the nashville severed leg was very important person agrees setting for the ride there are for the revocation of their sector of the yom kippur the nineteenth amendment woman suffrage amendment and teller say was the thirty six state of forty eight to ratify making it the law the land such of iraq about role here and mirren in

nashville then in terms of state regulation and then such a contribution to the national level because of what she had done in terms of the careful spadework and hearing the stories you know i think go this is a cynical anniversary of writing women wrote us while the production of this book this year sharing such a such a bell and i think that the i know i have a dozen new york publishers who have taken this book of its own until boy you gave its university conducted press oh actually i've been approached by charles roland a retired professor of arab news editor of the new perspectives on the south series in which this book appears and i made an agreement with famine with the us to present it to publish this book with them and of course at the time and my disagreement the book was a

dream rather than reality you really can decide in your publishers were managed i think they probably would've been too but i made this commitment i think it's it's turned out to rebel and i'm i'm glad you were seeking they preserve that vision to do less let's mention a couple of rows of metal and our recommended very prominent kentucky and has been of course was the shy breckenridge and i didn't have such an ideal marriage but nonetheless she was able to use the newspaper for her causes and he had read a liberal he's also an accountant matters like that of women's suffrage but she was a prominent leader in kentucky she campaigned for suffrage ratification and south she was a woman who had problems with ill health but she can overcome that it plans to fight for suffrage have right sunscreen let's skip and that's another thing and again here you find when you got right senses of humor a good laugh at themselves in and the situation they were very little more into

mine and jacqueline cochran war to an aviator as she was the woman who really put forth and they are for the young so the air force variant so it was this and women flew just about everything in the us arsenal that is to get planes from one location to another this breed of man for combat this counter was really rare or short owned bars at a time or war to camp and so the fact that women have picked up as for daring servers aren't home sales activity was around and it turned out it wasn't one as overly ford last july as a gay kid but lenny libya into another generation or so ago the most jaded or a virginia durr course beautiful while southern woman and certainly a southern lady in a grand slams chris ayer for our civil rights and had run ins with the eastland committee when i was holding hearings and to the great

delight of the press and some people in attendance at those harry shearer got out her compact and again to powder her nose and gran stop them as a father such a funny story about how she put jimmy slowing down but talking about poor ms eastland wright and what he has to put up with when she's a dear lady and that we all know or a lover and really admire but just think of the american missile out right and that it is one of powerful enough that some of the history of this country from the state of mississippi and she put him down but dog about the ordeal his wife arrived at to go through that it was really from sore than a war well you know i mean you think about the arts and you mentioned buying kid margaret mitchell and then you get into flannery o'connor on an ad and you know live in the moment on the only on

that you just mentioned the civil rights movement and you think again of the rosa parks who was who was a highlander truth is that in black women were major for civil rights movement they were and even women like rosa parks have revealed in her autobiography is that i had a very difficult time with the black man who want to keep them in subservient role what's the us what's the future of the soul and warm well i'm optimistic about that i have a daughter and this book actually is dedicated to my daughter and her generation so for that reason and because i want to believe there's a bright future ahead i hope opportunities for women north south east and west in this country will continue to expand and i don't think these are particularly healthy times about what what i'm hearing from washington for example well

margaret wolfe author of daughters of canaan has been our guest on the word n word nigger host ben johnson volunteer chairman of the freedom forum's first amendment center at vanderbilt university this program was produced in the studios of wbez and the nashville tenn