Influential Women of the Civil War Period

[aawall16]

Hello, I am currently working on my PhD. In Leadership Studies. I have been assigned a 30-35 paper on the following topic:

Influential Women of the Civil War Period and Their Relationship to and Influence on Abraham Lincoln.

In terms of structuring the paper, I am thinking about dividing the women into three categories:

Pre-War Influencers (Character shaping- Lincoln)

War-Time Influencers (Possibly divide by Political, Social, Private Life)

Post-War Influencers (Although Lincoln was deceased, his legacy lives on)

I have a working list of women for each category that I am considering and researching. However, I would love suggestions about women who would fit into these categories. I have attached my working list for review if it would be helpful.

Thanks,

Audrey

[RJNorton]

Hi Audrey. I do not have an immediate answer to your question, but I would like to welcome you to the forum!

[Eva Elisabeth]

Welcome to the forum, Audrey. I have never heard of "Leadership Studies" and am curious, so may I ask - is it a part of another, larger field (like politics)? What profession would one aim at when studying this?

I don't know how you define "influence on Abraham Lincoln", but as for my definition my instant thought is "none fits".

Regarding your first two categories, although his stepmother supported his desire to study and he allegedly said that "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother", I think their actual shaping influence was little. I am quite sure he would have made his way whatever the circumstances.

During the CW there were certainly women whom and whose efforts and achievements he highly respected and appreciated, but I don't think any seriously influenced or shape him. If there was any female influence on him to some extent perhaps in religious matters, like by Rebecca Pomroy, or Anna Dickinson. (And not to forget Grace Bedell who shaped his very real appearance...)

The only person coming instantly to my mind at all is probably Henry Clay. His wife Mary said that "none of us, no man or woman, could rule him". I think it is one of the features that "made Abraham Lincoln" was that he was not to be influenced or manipulated by others.

Re.: "Post-War Influencers (Although Lincoln was deceased, his legacy lives on)" - how can you influence a dead person's mind? (I sure know what you mean, but I would word that differently to be correct. And clearly define the word "influence".)

[Gene C]

(05-09-2015 12:35 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Regarding your first two categories, although his stepmother supported his desire to study and he allegedly said that "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother", I think their actual shaping influence was little. I am quite sure he would have made his way whatever the circumstances.

I politely disagree with you on this Eva. Without his mother's and step-mothers influence and encouragement I don't think he would have ever developed in the man he became. She certainly ran interference between Abraham and his father. With such little formal education, she had to be the one that gave him the chance to read and study that his father did not seem to think would be beneficial for him.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Yes, Gene, I agree on what you say about her interference between Abraham and his father. What I mean is his desire was intrinsic. His stepmother sure supported him, but I am quite sure if she hadn't, he still would have found a way to make his way. Influence means to me to change someone's thinking.

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Well, the women who surrounded him in his childhood (mother, sister, stepmother) certainly taught him the "common" behavioral values and manners (respect, politeness, and similar) of the respective era/society, as most parents try to.

[Gene C]

I can't say that she changed his thinking, but I sure think she played the key role in helping to shape and direct his thinking.
I also believe his father's role in developing Abraham's political views and moral values is probably under stated.

I believe his father was disappointed and didn't understand why his only surviving offspring was not interested in the farm that he had worked so hard to develop. He certainly had to recognize Abraham's potential. The strain in that relationship may have drawn him closer to his step-mother and given her a stronger impact on his life.

[Eva Elisabeth]

His father was a democrat...

However, the topic is "Influential Women of the Civil War Period and Their Relationship to and Influence on Abraham Lincoln" - can we count his mother/stepmother "Influential Women of the CIVIL WAR PERIOD"?

[aawall16]

Hi Eva,

Thanks for asking about Leadership Studies! Lots of people are curious about the degree. Leadership Studies is a newer field of academic research. It was first popularized by James MacGregor Burns. His seminal work entitled, Leadership, opened the field for others to build on his work in 1978. He offered the idea that leaders are either transformational or transactional. Later, he revised his theory to include the idea that leaders can be both transformational and transactional. In my first year of classes, we have studied leaders and thinkers from across history. We have learned how world events shaped leaders and the world we live in today. We have studied philosophers and famous authors, read over 100 books and we are just getting started!

As for jobs that I could obtain after earning this degree, it is varied. I could teach at any level of education in General Business, Management, Leadership and Organizational Behavior. I could work as a consultant/coach in management or business. There are a few in the program who have started non-profits and published extensively. I currently hold two other degrees in business and enjoy the topics of change management and Entrepreneurial Leadership very much. This particular assignment has reminded me how much I love history. The future is bright and I am sure that the right opportunities will turn up at the right time. For now, I work with a technology start-up in Plano, TX and am having a great time!

Thank you for weighing in on my assignment. I decided on the structure I proposed earlier because I think it is important to consider direct and indirect influences. I think the case can be made that we are shaped by our childhood. Lincoln grew into the man he was because of people and experiences that he encountered during his life. For instance, he was honest, valued human life and desired equality. Was he just born like this? I would say no. These are learned behaviors. He was a fierce fighter for what he believed in. Secondly, there were many men and women who were shaping events and causes during the Civil War. Lincoln was a man of the people, he valued the thoughts and wisdom of others. Therefore, I believe a case could be made that he was shaped indirectly by many people, including the women cited below.

Finally, after his death, his influence was still evident in the continued movements of Women's Suffrage, Civil Rights, possibly Temperance and Reconstruction. Lincoln presided over the preservation of a young country. American citizens were ravaged by a war that divided families (even his own), separated friends and altered the country forever. Through all of that, he led with steady leadership and careful planning. He gave causes like women's suffrage a voice and strength it had not had before the war. Honestly, the more I read and study, I think the case could be made that Lincoln's legacy still exists today.

Pre-War Influencers (Character shaping- Lincoln)
Nancy Hanks Lincoln
Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln
Ann Rutledge
Mary Todd Lincoln

War-Time Influencers (Possibly divide by Political, Social, Private Life)
Harriett Beecher Stowe
Clara Barton
Lucretia Mott
Susan B. Anthony (Mary Livermore)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Grace Bedell
Anna Dickinson
Elizabeth Keckley
Kate Chase Sprague
Jessie Fremont
Jane Swisshelm
Anna Ella Carroll
Sojourner Truth
Sarah Josepha Hale

Post-War Influencers (Although Lincoln was deceased, his legacy lived on)
Women's Suffrage
Civil Rights Movement
Reconstruction
Temperance

I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Audrey

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks for your reply and educating me on your studies, Audrey. Very impressive! I sure agree A. L. was someone who valued the thoughts and wisdom of others. Still I believe he had always faith in his own thinking, reconsideration, and decisions, i.e. he was not to be influenced to the degree of being positively or negatively "manipulated".
Please excuse me for this hairsplitting, but how could Nancy Hanks have been a woman of the civil war period? (I certainly do understand what you pursue with your categories, still to me it wouldn't match the title.)

[LincolnToddFan]

Audrey, I want to welcome you to the Forum..and I also want to say that your paper sounds absolutely intriguing. I can't wait to read it...what a brilliant idea!

I think MTL biographers Ruth Painter Randall and Jean Baker had some effect on Lincoln's image/legacy and writing about him in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, before Randall's sympathetic portrayal of Mary and the Lincoln marriage in 1953 the prevailing view was that he was mostly a henpecked marital martyr(the Herndon influence). Professor Jean Baker's and also Catherine Clinton's documented studies of the Lincoln marriage reveal the story in considerably more complexity and depth.

He was a patient, loyal and devoted husband with an amazing amount of emotional intelligence...but he was no saint. In fact his emotional and physical distance from his family while he was making his reputation locally and nationally could have played some role in his wife's volatile, possessive attitude when he WAS around.

[aawall16]

Eva,
Thanks for challenging me! I am thankful for your thoughts. I agree that Lincoln's birth mother does not fit neatly in the Civil War Era. However, I do think she played a part in the man he later became, therefore, she deserves mention. Perhaps a better place to put her is in the introduction, before I lead into other women...I will think on this.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Audrey, please excuse another hairsplitting "challenge" - the same goes for "Post-War Influencers (Although Lincoln was deceased, his legacy lived on)" - Lincoln might have influenced women's suffrage (and had "advocated" this already in1836, when he wrote to the editor of the Sangamo Journal: "I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms - by no means excluding females"), but again, this doesn't match your overall title (topic?). Women's suffrage is not an "Influential Women of the Civil War Period" that had a "Relationship to and Influence on Abraham Lincoln". If the one who assigned the topic is ok. with such liberties it's fine. (I just know some can be very hard on such matters, and candidates have to re-write an entire paper.)

Despite this title question, as I said, to me it depends on how you define "influence".

The OXFORD ADVANCED LEARNER'S DICTIONARY defines "influence" as:

"1. the effect that somebody/something has on the way a person thinks or behaves or on the way that something works or develops

2. the power that somebody/something has to make somebody/something behave in a particular way

3. a person or thing that affects the way a person behaves and thinks."

As for having an effect (#1) on A. L., I agree on your choice. As for #2, i.e. having the power to make him behave in a particular way (which is the definition I initially had in mind), I still tend to believe his wife who said "no man or woman could rule him". (Definition #3 seems to me somewhere in between #1&#2.)
Upon reconsideration and expanding "my" definition I especially think Mary supported and encouraged him a lot in his political career, finally leading to the presidency.

One last interesting "aside" on the origin/history of the word "influence"(also from the OALD):
"The word originally had the general sense ‘an influx, flowing matter’, also specifically (in astrology) ‘the flowing in of ethereal fluid (affecting human destiny)’. The current sense was established in Scholastic Latin by the 13th cent., but not recorded in English until the late 16th cent."
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/defini.../influence
(Of course, this might not be the appropriate/only source for a definition to refer to in an assignment paper.)

Again, please forgive my "hairsplitting" comments on your title - they are meant well! I second Toia, your assignment/paper sounds absolutely intriguing, and I, too, would love to read the outcome...In any case the best of success to you and your endeavor!

[aawall16]

Thanks for the feedback and your excitement! I will definitely share my paper, I am about 9 pages in.... I appreciate your recommendations, I will check them out tomorrow afternoon. I am just getting to Mary Todd Lincoln and there is much to uncover.

I can only imagine how difficult it was for them as a couple. From my early search, she had three brothers who fought with the Confederacy, two of them even died serving. Her family was divided over the war and her heart must have hurt. Marriage is hard under the best of circumstances and the era in which they found themselves in was definitely not ideal.

It seems as if both of them may have suffered from depression....do you have any insight on this? One book I looked at even mentioned, that MTL may have suffered from what we know today as Bi-Polar disorder.

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Eva,
I love your thoughts. Thank you for taking so much time to give me initial feedback on my ideas. This is exactly what I need. You are influencing my learning process! I am going to consider your thoughts...perhaps it would be better to use the post war section as a conclusion vs. a separate section. What do you think of that?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks for your kind words, Audrey!

I, too, would adject the outlook/legacy to the conclusion. Of course you will know better which way you are expected to work.

Mary certainly suffered from Bi-Polar disorder, and this is an informative site on A. L.'s moods, the footnotes provide further sources:
http://abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/abra...lns-moods/

[RJNorton]

(05-09-2015 05:36 PM)aawall16 Wrote:  It seems as if both of them may have suffered from depression....do you have any insight on this? One book I looked at even mentioned, that MTL may have suffered from what we know today as Bi-Polar disorder.

(05-11-2015 07:41 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Mary certainly suffered from Bi-Polar disorder,

Jason Emerson agrees, and there's an excerpt from his book here.

Here's a short video in which Jason shares some of his thoughts.

Jason's publisher writes, "The first to state unequivocally that Mary Lincoln suffered from bipolar disorder, Emerson offers a psychiatric perspective on the insanity case based on consultations with psychiatrist experts."

Joshua Wolf Shenk talks with former First Lady Rosalynn Carter here.