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During this time period multiple movements surfaced in hopes of moving toward the idea of all people being pro woman's suffrage. (H)

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This timeline reviews the different major events surrounding the subject of women's suffrage from the 1770's leading up to the 1920's. (H)

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Woman’s Suffrage History Timeline - Women’s Rights National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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The below timeline is from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection Home Page on the Library of Congress website.

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Christianity was the most prominent religion during the Civil War and it brought many soldiers and family members up from their melancholy. (C)
http://www.greatamericanhistory.net/revival.htm

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*Photo Credit: Google Images

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"At the same time, the story directly confronts and dramatizes the sexual politics of male/female and husband/wife relationships in a specific sociocultural setting. Anne’s husband, John, whom some critics see as a representative of a repressive, patriarchal society, is widely regarded as the antagonist in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” At the very least, his well-meaning but misguided efforts to enforce Dr. Mitchell’s gospel of rest are directly related to Anne’s descent into madness. When he consigns Anne to the upstairs room, the former nursery, his act introduces the dominant symbolism of the story. Anne’s room powerfully dramatizes her status in her society: she is legally a child, under the care and control of an adult. The windows of the nursery are barred, making it not only a childhood retreat but also a prison. The bedstead is nailed to the floor, underscoring Anne’s static position in the room. And she is forbidden to care for her own child" (Scribbling Women 1). (Cr)

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Scholars and critics have often noted the striking parallels between the experiences of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and those of the narrator* of "The Yellow Wallpaper" (including a cameo appearance by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, the physician who treated Gilman for nervous prostration in 1887). The autobiographical roots of the story constitute only one dimension of its significance, however, and "The Yellow Wallpaper" continues to be the subject of extensive critical scrutiny and debate. At one level, the story is a horror story, a clinical account of the slow descent of the white middle-class female protagonist/narrator into madness.

At the same time, the story directly confronts and dramatizes the sexual politics of male/female and husband/wife relationships in a specific sociocultural setting. Anne's husband, John, whom some critics see as a representative of a repressive, patriarchal society, is widely regarded as the antagonist in "The Yellow Wallpaper." At the very least, his well-meaning but misguided efforts to enforce Dr. Mitchell's gospel of rest are directly related to Anne's descent into madness. When he consigns Anne to the upstairs room, the former nursery, his act introduces the dominant symbolism of the story. Anne's room powerfully dramatizes her status in her society: she is legally a child, under the care and control of an adult. The windows of the nursery are barred, making it not only a childhood retreat but also a prison. The bedstead is nailed to the floor, underscoring Anne's static position in the room. And she is forbidden to care for her own child.

Thus cloistered, Anne increasingly focuses her attention on the yellow wallpaper, the primary symbol in the story. Anne's relationship to the wallpaper is an ambivalent one. It both repels and fascinates. She eventually begins to see in it a motion, a purpose, a design. As the story unfolds and pushes toward its inexorable conclusion, Anne shifts her attention from her desire to escape from the limitations imposed on her onto the figure of the woman trapped behind the patterns of the yellow wallpaper. She becomes obsessed with rescuing the woman, and the wallpaper becomes the symbol of both Anne's confinement and her liberation.

If critics tend to agree about the trajectory of the narrator/protagonist into madness, there is considerable disagreement about the significance of the concluding scene. Feminist critics tend to see Anne as the victim of an oppressive patriarchal society that sharply restricts women's freedom of movement, denies their creativity, and prevents them from functioning as complete human beings. Deprived of the right to read, some critics argue, Anne begins to read the wallpaper, in the process creating meaning for herself, discovering images that relate to the truth of her own experience. For these critics, Anne's descent into madness is, in fact, an act of affirmation, a form of freedom that rejects the injunctions of an irrational society.

Other critics have argued, equally passionately, that Anne's position at the end of the story signals a fateful descent into infantilism, regression, even animalism. Like the image of the yellow wallpaper, the ending of the story continues to provoke and divide readers and critics. There are no easy answers to these issues, a fact that insures that Gilman's classic story will continue to attract and haunt its readers in the future.
Photograph courtesy of the Ashfield Historical Society
* For dramatic purposes in the Scribbling Women adaptation of "The Yellow Wallpaper" our playwright, Laura Harrington, chose to give the name of "Anne" to Gilman's 'narrator'.

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Scholars and critics have often noted the striking parallels between the experiences of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and those of the narrator* of "The Yellow Wallpaper" (including a cameo appearance by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, the physician who treated Gilman for nervous prostration in 1887).

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"Unveiled, the yellow wallpaper is a metaphor for women's discourse. From a conventional perspective, it first seems strange, flamboyant, confusing, outrageous: the very act of women's writing produces discourse which embodies "unheard of contradictions." Once freed, it expresses what is elsewhere kept hidden and embodies patterns that the patriarchal order ignores, suppresses, fears as grotesque, or fails to perceive at all. Like all good metaphors, the yellow wallpaper is variously interpreted by readers to represent (among other things) the "pattern" which underlies sexual inequality, the external manifestation of neurasthenia, the narrator's unconscious, the narrator's situation within patriarchy. But an emphasis on discourse-writing, the act of speaking, language-draws us to the central issue in this particular story: the narrator's alienation from work, writing, and intellectual life. Thus the story is inevitably concerned with the complicated and charged relationship between women and language: analysis then illuminates particular points of conflict between patriarchal language and women's discourse" (Treichler 62). (Cr)

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Although not originally meant for a stage production, the work was later developed into a film by PBS. (Cr)

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The Yellow Wallpaper PBS Masterpiece Theater 1989 part 4

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The Yellow Wallpaper, televised 1989 with Stephen Dillon, Julia Watson and Carolyn Pickles, from the short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Masterpiece Theater

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Gilman was highly involved in social activism and spoke at many events such as  the 1896 convention of the National American Women's Suffrage Association (B)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/charlotte-perkins-gilmans-radical-feminism-still-challenges-us-today_b_9568134.html

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Although this piece is not centered around the war, Gilman still contributed to the feminist movement by pointing out the negative way women were sometimes treated by their husbands and by shedding a new light on mental illness in women. (H)

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Discussing the women's rights movements in the United States is impossible without mention of the iconic, female social reformers of the 19 th century. Without these women, the feminist movement would have been little more than a whisper, especially during the Civil War era. Celebrated women writers such as Louisa May Alcott, Rebecca Harding Davis, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Julia Ward Howe led the charge, bringing the women's movement to the attention of the nation during the mid 1800's. They inspired women that weren't involved with the war to get involved.

Contrary to popular belief at the time, women became very effective replacements for men in a number of roles. They began filling the roles of nurses, volunteer arms, spies, and tailors to name a few. Women also contributed to the war effort away from the field of battle. Many women writers, unable to fit into the war effort physically, used the turmoil created by the war to fuel their creative inclinations. Female authors became very outspoken and active during this time period, praising or condemning a side of the fighting on paper. These works of literature were influential in guiding the war effort and keeping soldiers on the battlefield. They also encouraged women at home to stand up for their state and push opposing troops out of their city. The heightened sense of individuality felt by women during the 19 th century came at a time of great unrest in the country. The war was consuming the attention of the nation and women suddenly felt the need to defend themselves. This desire to take an affirmative stance was especially evident during the year 1862, in which the intense opposition surrounding abolition was reaching its peak before Emancipation. Thus, in 1862 and the era of Rebellion, due to a new sense of individuality that was sweeping across the nation, women writers became a major part of the war effort even far from the battlefield.

Prior to the 1850's, women had little influence in the literary sphere. "Women writers were stereotyped as being brainy, selfish, unladylike, and unattractive," leaving the role to the "more capable" men of the time.[1] These men, fearful of competition, harshly criticized any woman who tried to impose on their livelihood. Thus, they attached little value to female literary products, claiming the inadequacy to be the result of "their supposed deficiencies as women."[2] This made it extremely difficult for women to publish work in a literary sphere dominated by male publishers. This opinion of women all changed, however, in the mid-nineteenth century - or more specifically, 1862 - as "women's literacy rates [began to] soar."[3] Soon, with the dawn of the civil war, "women made up nearly half of all writers of popular literature in the country."[4] This surge created a wealth of new material for scholarly audiences, vastly expanding women participation in literature.

As women writers became more commonplace, so did their appearance in a number of different fields of literary work. Their expansion ranged in variety from full-length novels to diaries, spreading their opinions to an eclectic audience of readers. One common theme through all these pieces of work, however, was the discussion on the implications of the civil war. It became the goal of these literary women to express their opinions on paper in the hopes of "shap[ing] the way their respective nation viewed its mission."[5]. As a result, unable to physically contribute to the war effort, women writers assumed the force of motivation for soldiers through a number of different forms of literature.

Perhaps the most influential of these forms of literature were the short stories written by female activists. Acclaimed writers Rebecca Harding Davis, Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stow, and Lydia Maria Child regularly wrote complex short stories drawing on the scene of the nation at war for local newspapers; "The main source of information to civilians in the Union and the Confederacy."[6] These stories almost always contained some underlying theme of anti-confederate/anti-war sentiment; an expression that was increasingly prevalent among Northerners in the year 1862.

During that year, Rebecca Harding Davis published her short story, David Gaunt, to illustrate the detrimental impact of the Civil War on families left at home. Two main themes she stressed throughout her story were the idea of death and the effect it has on a families moral. Davis wrote death to be virtually synonymous with the war; any mention of the war was almost immediately surrounded by mention of the "wounded soldiers" or the heartbreak brought upon relatives of the diseased.[7] Time and time again, the character's found themselves unable to escape the "winter's night," which serves as a symbol for "death, [and] war" throughout the story.[8] Even the main character of the story was an outspoken abolitionist, who "knows her state will soon be free."[9] Davis also employs another more subliminal tactic to promote the Union cause, outwardly discussing the importance of race equality. In David Gaunt especially, Davis portrayed "her African-American characters as autonomous individuals.[10] This tactic helped break down the separation between whites and blacks in literature, installing racial equality into the minds of her readers. Due to the fact that Davis wrote for Northern periodicals, her readers shared her anti-confederate sentiment, allowing them to use David Gaunt to fuel their battle rage.

Similarly, Louisa May Alcott also wrote stories designed to expose the hidden horrors of the war. During the Civil War, Alcott worked as a nurse in the Union army, giving her first-hand experience working with the most graphic of injuries and war carnage. Determined to bring the extent of the violence to light, she fictionalized her diary into a novel, drawing on her own personal encounters to create a vivid short story that would excite her readers. Descriptions such as "The sight of several stretchers each with its legless, armless, or desperately wounded occupant" were abundant in Alcott's novel.[11] They painted a picture of the war that many readers were not accustomed to seeing; away from the glorified, patriotic depictions of the fighting that were becoming commonplace in papers. Much of her novel emphasized the horrific conditions for nurses in the wards as well. She mentioned at one point how much she "longed for the wounded to arrive" while working with the sick, to stress the amazing prevalence of infection in the wards.[12] For the average American citizen, descriptions such as these would have left a lasting impression. In fact, Alcott's illustrations would become an iconic piece of female literature that would pave the way for women activists. In September 1863, the Boston Daily Advertiser published an article that praised Hospital Sketches, stating, "we wish more of the literature of the war had been equally original."[13] Coming from a reputable New England newspaper, this simple article gave Alcott and indirectly all women writers of the time the credibility they deserved in a male-dominated profession.

Harriet Beecher Stowe has been hailed one the most influential of these female novelists. Stowe worked to bring the right's of women and slaves to light during the tumultuous mid-nineteenth century. She was determined to make her readers understand "that slavery was the all-important issue for the nation to address."[14] Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) - although not published in 1862 - became one of the major driving forces behind the formation of the Civil War. Uncle Tom's Cabin "helped solidify Northerners' antipathy toward slavery by portraying the ways in which slaveholders robbed their slaves of their humanity."[15] It became an instant best seller among abolitionists, while simultaneously enraging the Confederacy to the brink of war. In 1862, Stowe deviated from this anti-confederate attack momentarily and transitioned to another pressing issue of the time, women's rights. Her novel The Pearl of Orrs Island, encouraged readers to "realize the ways in which society restricts women's opportunities."[16] Being a female writer, Stowe would have been well acquainted with these social injustices, and an expert in the field of getting around them.

Lydia Maria Child was another key figure in abolitionist activism. Although the bulk of her more well known writing was published before the Civil War, her letters and articles continued to flood leading Northern newspapers until her death in 1880. Child submitted much of this "propaganda" anonymously or using a pseudonym with the hopes that "her message would reader a broader readership."[17] This veil makes it difficult to find articles Child published during 1862, but her influence was enormous nonetheless.

Another area of literature where women writers were becoming increasingly prevalent was poetry. Poems gave writers the ability to compress their personal opinion on the war into a short description. The fact that most poems could easily fit into an article length submission in a newspaper or magazine also added to their practicality, and allowed writers to convey their sentiment to a vast audience of readers. These characteristics made poems the ideal form of communication for many women writers, determined to spread their ideas.

One of the most remembered of these poems is the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," written by Julia Ward Howe. First published in the Atlantic Monthly in February 1862, the hymn served as a patriotic marching tune for Union soldiers during the Civil War. It embodied "widespread Northern sentiment" that the cause of the Union was divine in nature and therefore undefeatable. The image of "a militant, angry, all-powerful god intervening in war...to institute justice and freedom" struck a cord with disheartened soldiers marching into battle and families left defenseless at home alike.[18] In an article of reflection, one Union soldier - discussing his time in a Confederate prison - recalled "singing the hymn...in that dismal place of confinement."[19] The inspiring nature of the poem made it one that was "often sung in the course of the war, and under a great variety of circumstances."[20]

Lucy Larcom was another renowned poet during the 19 th century. Similar to other female writers of her time, Larcom wrote numerous poems that expressed deep patriotic themes. By 1862, she had established herself among the most esteemed of these writers as a regular contributor to the Atlantic Monthly. Her poems "Re-enlisted" and "Waiting for the News" added to her co-workers motivational pieces and continued to fuel the violent opposition of the Rebellion. In her work, she often stressed the importance of vast ever-expanding armies and the "strength of purpose" in the Union cause.[21] Her poems conveyed the same sense of "righteousness" that other Union writers presented in their work, creating yet another motivating piece of literature to keep Northerners in the fight.[22]

Although usually not published until years after they were written, diaries also provide valuable insight into the scene of the nation at war. They acted as daily snapshots in the lives of the influential women who kept them and served as "a means of preserving a historical record of the national conflict."[23] Of the published diaries recorded in 1862, the most notable of them belong to female activists Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Eaton, and Kate Stone. These writers documented daily life during the war to provide readers with a graphic first-hand account of the action.

Louisa May Alcott's diary from her six weeks as an army nurse does just that; it paints a vivid illustration of the medical wards, allowing readers to visualize tending to patients with her. She documented every case, action, reaction, and emotion she had while at the Union Hotel Hospital in Washington, DC. She recalls waking "up at six...[poking] up the fire, ... giving out rations, cutting up food for helpless boys, washing faces, dressing wounds," and everything else a medical nurse in the Union army had to endure.[24] She then compiled and historically-fictionalized these memories into a full-length novel to add depth to the story and make it entertaining for her audience. The novel, Hospital Sketches, became a widely cited representation of medical treatment during the war.

Similarly, Harriet Eaton's diary, recently republished as The Birthplace of Souls by Jane E. Shultz, also gives horrific day-to-day recaps from her time as a hospital nurse. In one particularly saddening entry, she recalls being confronted by a "poor fellow who had had both legs shattered," who begged, "'do let me see your face tomorrow. I am growing childish" just before "bursting into tears."[25] Eaton's account of this story would have been chilling for people reading it in 1862, as it accurately depicts the struggle for soldiers to cope with the concept of death during the war.

Diaries also provided women writers with a way to discuss matters away from the chaos of the battlefield. Kate Stone, a native Southerner from Louisiana, kept a diary to primarily to document her "daily life and thoughts."[26] She embodied the group of people "leading normal lives regardless of the war being fought."[27] After receiving news of Butler's General Order No. 28, however, her focus moved to motivating women in New Orleans's to fight back. She believed the "women of New Orleans had reacted naturally to 'Butler's vandal hordes,'" thus were appropriate in their response to the Union invasion. She wrote threatening lines like "may he not long pollute the soil of Louisiana"[28] in the hopes of encouraging fellow women to stand up and fight.

Much of the discussion regarding the Civil War revolves around the violence and chaos of the battles. Unable to participate in the fighting, women assumed the less physically mutilating role of writers. They became an "established, influential force in the nation's literary marketplace," providing newspapers and magazines with a steady stream of motivational and educational writing.[29] In addition, amidst the reconstruction associated with the Civil War, women finally were able to confront their own issue of inequality. Determined to overcome the obstacles facing women of their time, these women writers highlighted "all the ways in which women were contributing to the war effort."[30] Through this political tactic, women successfully "dominated" the literary sphere for the first time in history in 1862.[31] This surge encouraged the nation to recognize women as capable individuals, able to contribute to society as mens equal.

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Discussing the women's rights movements in the United States is impossible without mention of the iconic, female social reformers of the 19 th century. Without these women, the feminist movement would have been little more than a whisper, especially during the Civil War era.

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Gilman's divorce contributed to her growing depression due to the negative perception the divorce brought upon her. (C)
photo credit: http://www.thebirdtree.co.uk/showmedia.php?mediaID=66

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This is the home Gilman lived in while writing the famous story The Yellow Wallpaper, located  near the corner of Orange Grove Boulevard and Arroyo Terrace in Pasadena. (B) Photo credit to
http://hometown-pasadena.com/history/her-land-pasadena/9429

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The Yellow Wallpaper deals with mental illness in women, which is truthfully based on Gilman's life. (C)

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(B)