Course Content
Students will examine the role of gender, class, race, and region in explaining the social, economic, political, and cultural circumstances of women in the U. S. South.  Readings, films, and discussions are designed to illustrate the myths and realities of Southern womanhood from the colonial period to the present.

Required Readings
Clinton and Gillespie, The Devil's Land: Sex and Race in the Early South
White, Ar'n't I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South, 2nd ed.
Robertson (ed.), A Confederate Lady Comes of Age
Hagood, Mothers of the South: Portraiture of the White Tenant Farm Woman
Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi
McCandless, The Past in the Present: Women's Higher Education in the Twentieth Century American South
http://www.cofc.edu/~mccandla/usweb.htm
Handouts as provided

All readings should be completed by the date indicated on the syllabus.

Analytical Paper
Every student will be required to write a 15 to 20 page paper analyzing a primary document by or about a Southern woman. The document can be a diary or a journal, a collection of letters, an autobiography, or a series of newspaper articles, but it must be at least 50 pages long. The document may be published or in manuscript form. See paper worksheet for additional information on content and style.

Tests, Examinations, and Quizzes
There will be a midterm and a final examination.  Both will include short answer and essay questions. An excuse from the Dean of Graduate Studies will be required to make-up the midterm or the final exam.  Short answer (true-false, fill-in-the-blank, listing, matching,questions) quizzes will be given on the discussion readings. Since I drop the lowest quiz grade, there will be NO make-ups for quizzes.

Class Participation and Attendance
Everyone is expected to participate in class discussions of the readings. Please read materials carefully and critically; you will not get class participation credit for talking off the top of your head! Students will take turns presenting highlights from their primary document analyses to the class during the last week of the semester. Presentations should be approximately ten minutes long.  See paper worksheet for contents and format.

Grading
Final grades will be based on a weighted average of the midterm exam (20 percent), the analytical paper (25 percent), class presentation of primary document (10 percent), quizzes, class participation, and attendance (25 percent), and the final examination (20 percent). The following grading scale will be used: A = 90-100; B+ = 86-89; B = 80-85; C+ = 76-79; C = 70-75; D = 60-69; F = 0-59.

Weekly Assignments
Jan 10        Course Introduction; Southern Distinctiveness; The First Southerners
Jan 17        Discuss: The Devil's Lane
Jan 24        From Innocence to Indigo; African Heritage; Film: Digging for Slaves
Jan 31        Discuss: Ar'n't I a Woman?
Feb 7         Mary Boykin's Civil War; Race, Class, and Gender in the Post-War South
Feb 14        Discuss: A Confederate Lady Comes of Age
Feb 21        Midterm Examination
Feb 28        Film: Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Spring Break
Mar 14        Progressivism: For Whites Only;  Discuss: Past in the Present, 1-82
Mar 21        Discuss: Mothers of the South
Mar 28        Women in the Freedom Movement; Film: Eyes on the Prize I: Awakenings; Discuss: Past in the Present, 121-158; 213-256
Apr 4          Discuss: Coming of Age in Mississippi
Apr 11        Southern Women Today; Film: Steel Magnolias; Discuss: Past in the Present, 257-81
Apr 18        Class Presentations

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