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<\/p>\nOXFORD, Miss. – American history is full of stories about \n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \nScott, W.K. Boyd Professor Emerita of History at Duke \n“She is kind of the mother of women’s history,” said \nThe research began as Scott’s dissertation at Harvard \n” ‘The Southern Lady’ was a product of my considerable \nAlthough the conference features Scott and her work, many \n“The Porter Fortune History Symposium is one of the major \nThe symposium also provides the perfect complement to \n“We were so impressed with the symposium’s plenary \nUlrich, Harvard’s 300th Anniversary University Professor, \n“The significance of Powers’ work for women’s history is \nScott is to deliver the closing address at 7 p.m. \nAmong other revelations, Scott’s writings explode the idea \n“One of the things that came out of her work was that \nDigging through personal papers, Scott found those stories \n“Women were written about as mothers, wives and how their
\nwomen and their accomplishments, but until 1970, most of
\nthose stories were told by men. That’s when Anne Firor
\nScott’s landmark book “The Southern Lady” added a woman’s
\ntouch and launched an entirely new academic discipline.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n
\nUniversity, is both honoree and featured speaker for this
\nweek’s 32nd Annual Porter L. Fortune Jr. History Symposium
\nat the University of Mississippi. “Writing Women’s History:
\nA Tribute to Anne Firor Scott” starts at 8 a.m. Wednesday
\n(March 19) at the E.F. Yerby Conference Center and
\nconcludes Thursday. The free event pays homage to a woman
\nwho, in the process of writing history, made history
\nherself.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nElizabeth Payne, co-planner of the event with fellow
\nhistory professor Sheila Skemp. “She dived deeply into the
\narchives and pieced together the daily lives of a group of
\nwomen who had not been studied before: white Southern
\nwomen.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nUniversity. It ended as “The Southern Lady” (University of
\nChicago Press, 1970), a book that took form during the
\nWomens’ Rights Movement of the 1960s.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\ncuriosity about these women of whom hardly anybody seemed
\nto have heard,” Scott wrote for the History News Network
\nWeb site. “I had no notion that the result would be seen as
\na new way of studying the past, and as inaugurating a major
\nhistoriographical shift.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nother aspects of women’s history are to be discussed by a
\ndiverse group of women historians. Among the 10 speakers
\nscheduled are Crystal Feimster of the University of North
\nCarolina-Chapel Hill, who is to speak on “Rape and the
\nCivil War”; Darlene Clark Hine of Northwestern University,
\ndiscussing “Black Women in White in South Carolina During
\nthe Jim Crow Era”; Laurel Thatcher Ulrich of Harvard
\nUniversity, speaking on “A Quilt Unlike Any Other:
\nRediscovering the Work of Harriet Powers”; and Deborah Gray
\nWhite of State University of New Jersey, who is to lecture
\non “The Million Mom March: The Perils of a Colorblind
\nMaternalism.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nannual events on our campus,” said Joseph Ward, chair of
\nthe Department of History. “That this year’s symposium
\ntakes place during Women’s History Month and features
\npublic lectures by a large number of leading scholars of
\nAmerican women’s history makes it especially significant.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nevents hosted by the Sarah Isom Center for Women’s Studies,
\nsaid Mary Carruth, center director.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nlecturers that we decided to adopt all 10 of them as our
\n2008 Women’s History Month speakers,” Carruth said. “Laurel
\nThatcher Ulrich’s presentation on Harriet Powers will truly
\nhonor the spirit of Women’s History Month.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nis likely to be of particular interest to quilters. During
\nthe Revolutionary War era, a black woman named Harriett
\nPowers crafted the two quilts that are among the best-known
\ntextiles in American museums. Ulrich plans to discuss
\nPowers’ quilts, which are on display at the Smithsonian
\nInstitution and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nlargely unexplored,” Payne said. “We have a lot of quilters
\nin the area, and I think this lecture and person will
\nappeal to them.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nThursday.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nthat white plantation mistresses led an easy life, Payne
\nsaid.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nplantation mistresses did a lot of work,” Payne said. “They
\noversaw the garden, often cared for sick slaves and even
\ntook care of slave children who were too young to go to the
\nfield. Southern white women married young and had babies
\nevery other year. So the myth about white plantation
\nmistresses just sitting on the porch drinking tea is based
\nin fantasy.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nand told them. And in the process, she added a feminine
\ndimension to how American history is recorded.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\npublic lives went,” Payne said. “Personal papers and the
\nstructure of their daily lives weren’t considered relevant.
\nSo the whole texture of the South looked different after
\nAnne Scott’s work.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n