The people living in the Kennesaw Mountain region prior to the Civil War were very diverse. These communities were composed of five classes of people: merchants, large scale farmers, yeomen/small scale farmers, free blacks, and enslaved blacks. Each group had its own individual characteristics and would each have an impact on the Kennesaw Mountain region before, during, and after the Civil War.
Women
The lives of women during the mid-nineteenth century varied greatly according to their socio-economic status, i.e. working on a farm, leading a life of leisure, or working in a factory. Even with the differences between the varying groups within Victorian society, all women were united by a common societal view towards their sex. Their lives were dominated by the ideals of what is known as the Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood. The major principles of this ideology included: piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. The extent to which these principles were relevant to a woman's daily life also depended on their socio-economic status. For example, the wife of a yeomen farmer would likely have worked alongside her husband on the family farm, in addition to her duties within the home. Along the same lines, the wife or daughter of a large plantation owner or merchant would have had more time to practice the crafts and other activities, such as embroidery and playing musical instruments, recommended by the ideals of the Cult of Domesticity.
For the women of the Kennesaw Mountain region, daily life was similar to that of the everyday American woman, finding themselves a part of the Victorian ideal of womanhood. In the South, there were two exceptions to this expectation: enslaved and free black women; in society the same rules of femininity did not apply. The major social-economic groups that existed in the Kennesaw Mountain region included: merchants, large-scale farmer, yeomen farmer, free-blacks, and slaves. With the beginning of the Civil War, the roles of men and women changed.
Kolb Farm
While men were predominantly involved in the military, most women remained active on the homefront. The ideals of the Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood were still in existence, however with the occurrence of war the roles of women shifted out of necessity. Some women were more directly involved in the war through their service as nurses and doctors, by disguising themselves as soldiers, and/or by participating in espionage activity. Women were responsible for taking on many of the duties of males while they were away at war. A woman's socio-economic status greatly influenced the extent to which she assumed additional roles. For example, an enslaved black woman would have continued her work without much interruption, but the wife of a yeoman farmer would have been responsible for maintaining not only the housework, but also the family farm.
Roswell Mill
Another way that the war expanded the roles of women was through work outside of the home. In a scenario akin to women entering the workforce during World War II, numerous middle class women went to work in government offices, hospitals, factories, and mills. For the women of the Kennesaw Mountain region and the surrounding area, the mills in New Manchester and Roswell were the most notable. When General Sherman came through Georgia during the Atlanta Campaign (1864), many of the women working in local mills were arrested on charges of treason against the Union and shipped north. For many of these women, it would be years before they were able to return to their homes.
At the end of the war, life for most women returned to its pre-war existence dominated by the Cult of Domesticity. However, for many women life would be forever changed because homes and lands were destroyed, husbands never returned from the war, and formerly held ideals were shattered. The work of the women on the homefront during the Civil War prepared America for the women's rights movement.
