Abbie Holmes Christensen and the Politics of Race and Gender, 1852-1938
Hardback
Publication Date: 01/07/2002
The story of a Yankee reformer and her life in Beaufort County, South Carolina; Born into a Massachusetts abolitionist family, Abie Holmes Christensen (1852-1938) epitomized the Yankee reformer spirit of the nineteenth century. Well educated and passionate about human rights, she moved to Beaufort, South Carolina, with her parents in 1864 as part of the Port Royal Experiment. In 1870, as a teenager, she began teaching black students. During her life she labored to educate South Carolina's African Americans, fought for women's equal participation in politics, and eventually took a role in the Socialist Party of America. Monica Maria Tetzlaff's biography of this activist reformer reveals not only the life of an intriguing individual, but also the history of the Sea Islands of South Carolina during a neglected era - from Reconstruction to the New Deal. Tetzlaff chronicles Abbie Holmes's education at Mount Holyoke College, her return to Beaufort, and her marriage in 1875 to Niels Christensen, a Danish immigrant and former captain of ""Colored Troops"" in the Union army. Tetzlaff depicts the intensity of Christensen's private and public life as the mother of six children and as a tireless reformer engaged in temperance and women's suffrage movements. Together with black South Carolinians, Christensen did pioneering work as a Gullah folklorist and established and African American agricultural school and hospital. In cooperation with white southern women, she promoted the conservation of wildlife and the greening of town spaces. As Tetzlaff recounts an uncommon life story, she also sheds light on the time and place in which Christensen worked. Through Christensen's biography, Tetzlaff illumines the collapse, recovery, and second collapse of agriculture in South Carolina's lowcountry, African Americans' brief equality and second subjugation under the forces of Jim Crow, and the transformation of Beaufort County by industry, migration, and national politics.
- ISBN:
- 9781570034534
- 9781570034534
- Category:
- Biography: historical
- Format:
- Hardback
- Publication Date:
- 01-07-2002
- Publisher:
- University of South Carolina Press
- Country of origin:
- United States
- Pages:
- 352
- Dimensions (mm):
- 229x152x32mm
- Weight:
- 0.76kg
Click 'Notify Me' to get an email alert when this item becomes available
Great!
Click on Save to My Library / Lists
Click on Save to My Library / Lists
Select the List you'd like to categorise as, or add your own
Here you can mark if you have read this book, reading it or want to read
Awesome! You added your first item into your Library
Great! The fun begins.
Click on My Library / My Lists and I will take you there
Click on My Library / My Lists and I will take you there
You can find this item in:
Social discrimination & inequality
History of the Americas
Biography: historical
Social & cultural history
Gender studies: women
Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900
Gender studies
20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000
Local history
Ethnic studies
Show more
Show less
Reviews
Be the first to review Cultivating a New South.
Share This Book: