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WORK TITLE: Stepping Lively in Place
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http://www.csun.edu/social-behavioral-sciences/history/joyce-broussard * http://www.cwbr.com/civilwarbookreview/index.php?q=6389&field=ID&browse=yes&record=full&searching=yes&Submit=Search
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:California State University, Northridge, B.A., 1991, M.A., 1993; University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1998.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and educator. Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Beverly Hills, CA, head archivist, 1995-96; Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, head archivist, 1996-98; California State University, Northridge, professor, 1999-. Previously worked as a film editor.
WRITINGS
Contributor to publications, including the Journal of Mississippi History and Southern Studies. Contributor of chapters to books.
SIDELIGHTS
Joyce Linda Broussard is a writer and educator. She holds both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from California State University, Northridge. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. Broussard has had a varied career. She has worked as a film editor and has also held the position of head archivist at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and at Dickinson College. Since 1999, Broussard has served as a professor of history at California State University, Northridge. She has written articles that have appeared in scholarly publications, including the Journal of Mississippi History and Southern Studies.
In 2016, Broussard released her first book, Stepping Lively in Place: The Not-Married, Free Women of Civil-War-Era Natchez, Mississippi. She begins the volume with a description of the location upon which she focuses. Natchez is located on the Mississippi River, and it boasted an important port during the time about which Broussard writes. Broussard goes on to discuss expectations of women during the Civil War era, noting that there was pressure for those women to be married and to be subservient to their husbands. She explains how women who were not married were treated by others in Natchez society. Broussard discusses both unmarried free black women and unmarried white women. She suggests that unmarried women were most successful when they manipulated the white men in their community into believing that they were serving them in some way.
Broussard explains that there was a servant ideal placed upon women and people of color. If unmarried women played along with that ideal, they were able to thrive in Natchez. White men in the city were at the top of the social hierarchy and expected that those below them, that is, women, free people of color, and enslaved persons, existed to serve them in one way or another. If single, free women helped to maintain the patriarchy, they could live full lives and were welcome in society. Broussard discusses the concept of divorce, explaining that, in Natchez, it was mostly acceptable, especially if there was abuse, adultery, or abandonment in the marriage. She comments on specific single women in Natchez, including Rebecca Mandeville and Lydia Dowell. Mandeville was a white woman who was part of high society in Natchez, while Dowell was a merchant known for her use of coarse language. Broussard cites public records from the era, explaining how they helped her to develop an idea of what the lives of single women in Natchez were like. She also discusses personal and legal documents that she used to inform her arguments in the book.
Reviews of Stepping Lively in Place were favorable. Kelly Weber Stefonowich, contributor to the Journal of Southern History, commented about Stepping Lively in Place that it “is an important addition to a growing literature on the lived experiences of single women in American history.” Stefonowich added: “Such a feat required exhaustive archival research and has resulted in an impressive window into the lives of Natchez’s not-married, free women.” Writing on the Civil War Book Review website, Jean Harvey Baker suggested: “Good monographs are like specialty stores: their ‘goods’ are deeply-researched specialized historical evidence that amplifies a subject and offers new information on a particular topic, the corollary of a unique piece of clothing that highlights an outfit. Such is the case with Joyce Linda Broussard’s excellent Stepping Lively in Place.” Baker added: “The writing is lively and informative despite the staggering but useful number of statistics.” Baker concluded: “Overall this is an excellent example of how a look at a singular community adds to our historical ‘store’ of knowledge.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Journal of Southern History, August, 2017, Kelly Weber Stefonowich, review of Stepping Lively in Place: The Not-Married, Free Women of Civil-War-Era Natchez, Mississippi, p. 690.
ONLINE
California State University, Northridge Website, https://www.csun.edu/ (January 12, 2018), author faculty profile.
Civil War Book Review, http://www.cwbr.com/ (December 24, 2017), Jean Harvey Baker, review of Stepping Lively in Place.
Joyce Broussard
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Full-Time Faculty
Email:
joyce.broussard@csun.edu Phone:
(818) 677-3559
Office location:
Sierra Tower 627
Biography
Education
Ph.D., American History, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (1998)
M.A., History, California State University, Northridge (1993)
B.A., History, California State University, Northridge, Summa Cum Laude (1991)
Courses Taught
HIST 151: Western Civilization II
HIST 270: U.S. to 1865
HIST 271: U.S. Since 1865
HIST 301: The Historian’s Craft: Reading, Research and Writing History
HIST 349A: Women in American History Through 1848
HIST 349B: Women in American History Since 1848
HIST 371: Problems in American History, 1865 to Present
HIST 402: Writing Family History
HIST 475: Women in Modern United States History: 1900 to the Present
HIST 498: Perspectives North & South: The American Civil War in Film & History
HIST 498:Naked Before the Law: Women, Gender, Law and American History
HIST 497G: Law, Gender, and Sexuality in American History
HIST 585: Colloquium in the U. S. South—Focus on the Lower South
HIST 585: Southern Colloquium: Readings on the Civil War Era: Southern Society, War, and the Home Front
Hist. 586: Law, Gender, and Sexuality in American History
HIST 586: Gender and Religion in American History
HIST 586: Gender, Women, Men, and Sexuality in the American South
HIST 596NCP: Natchez Courthouse Project
HIST 596RM: Selected Topics—Graduate Research and Methods
HIST 596S: Selected Topics in Southern History—Readings on Southern Identity
HIST 673: Research Seminar in the Civil War and Reconstruction
HIST 675: Research Seminar in Southern History
HIST 693: Directed Research Seminar in Southern History
HIST 694: Graduate Practicum for Teachers in Training
Credential Courses
HIST 498PC: Senior Capstone Seminar for Prospective Teachers: An Introduction to Historical Education
SBS/EDUC 695SBA-695SBK: Residency Seminar II: Developing Best Practices as a Beginning Teacher in the Social Sciences
Selected Publications and Presentations
“Malvina Matthews: The Murderess Madam of Civil-War-Era Natchez,” Journal of Mississippi History 73 (2011): 23-58.
“Coping with the Deluge: The Elite, ‘Not Married’ Women of Post-bellum Natchez, Mississippi and the ‘Other Men’ in Their Lives,” Southern Studies (2010): 39-74
“Stepping Lively in Place: The Free Black Women of Antebellum Natchez,” in Mississippi Women: Their Histories, Their Lives, Vol. II, ed. Elizabeth A. Payne et al., (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010), 23-38
“Naked before the Law: Married Women and the Servant Ideal in Antebellum Natchez,” Mississippi Women: Their Histories, Their Lives, Vol. II, ed. Elizabeth A. Payne et al., (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010), 57-76
“Occupied Natchez, Elite Women, and the Feminization of the Civil War,” Journal of Mississippi History 70 (2008): 179-207.
“Slave Families,” in Women in the Civil War: an Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2008).
“The Court and Gender,” educator’s website in support of the PBS Documentary,” History of the Supreme Court,” (2005-2007): (www.historyofsupremecourt.org/history/gender/opener.htm)
“Women Alone in Natchez, Mississippi,” in Natchez on the Mississippi: A Journey through Southern History, 1820-1870, ed. Joyce L. Broussard and Ronald L. F. Davis (Los Angeles: Norstel Press, 1995), 28-32.
Co-editor, with Ronald L. F. Davis, Natchez on the Mississippi: A Journey through Southern History: 1870-1920 (Los Angeles: Norstel Press, 1995).
Other
Consultant, Member, Editorial Board, “Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007” (www.slavery.amdigital.co.uk)
Author and Consultant, PBS Web Site, “History of the Supreme Court” (www.historyofsupremecourt.org/history/gender/opener.htm)
Author and Consultant, PBS Web Site, “The Women of Slavery,” (www.slaveryinamerica.org)
Author, Editor, and Consultant, PBS Web Site, “Gender and Jim Cro,” (www.jimcrowhistory.org)
Research and Interests
Since joining the CSUN faculty in 1999, Professor Joyce L. Broussard has taught undergraduate classes on the American South, the Civil War and Reconstruction, U.S. history, gender and legal history, U.S. women’s history, and introductory and advanced research and methods classes. She also teaches extensively at the graduate level with a focus on historical research and methods in the history of the American South, Civil War and Reconstruction, and gender and legal history. A major component of her work at CSUN has been her involvement as co-director and director of the Natchez Project in Southern History, which has included coordinating and facilitating the Biennial Historic Natchez Conferences (1994-2013). This endeavor supports student research trips to the lower South and internship experiences in archival and historic records management. Dr. Broussard has published widely on both U.S. southern and gender history, and has a book forthcoming on the history of widowed, divorced, and single women in the nineteenth-century South. She has also worked as a consultant to various academic websites including numerous PBS productions in support of historical documentaries dealing with slavery, the Supreme Court, and the history of “Jim Crow” and racism in America. Prior to joining the CSUN faculty, Dr. Broussard served as the head archivist at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA (1996-98) and at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in Beverly Hills, CA (1995-96), as well as a professional film editor for television and cinema.
QUOTED: "Stepping Lively in Place: The Not-Married, Free Women of Civil-War-Era Natchez, Mississippi is an important addition to a growing literature on the lived experiences of single women in American history."
"Such a feat required exhaustive archival research and has resulted in an impressive window into the lives of Natchez's not-married, free women."
Stepping Lively in Place: The Not-Married, Free Women of Civil-War-Era Natchez, Mississippi
Kelly Weber Stefonowich
Journal of Southern History. 83.3 (Aug. 2017): p690+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Southern Historical Association
http://www.uga.edu/~sha
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Stepping Lively in Place: The Not-Married, Free Women of Civil-War-Era Natchez, Mississippi. By Joyce Linda Broussard. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2016. Pp. xviii, 338. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-8203-4972-5; cloth, $84.95, ISBN 978-0-8203-4549-9.)
Stepping Lively in Place: The Not-Married, Free Women of Civil-War-Era Natchez, Mississippi is an important addition to a growing literature on the lived experiences of single women in American history. Joyce Linda Broussard argues that as long as they did not challenge the white slaveholding patriarchy, single, free women navigated the social and legal realities of life in Civil War-era Natchez, Mississippi, with relative ease. Stepping Lively in Place examines the experiences of women not only across the spectrum of singleness, including never-married, divorced, and widowed women, but also across racial and economic boundaries. Such a feat required exhaustive archival research and has resulted in an impressive window into the lives of Natchez's not-married, free women.
Broussard's central thesis is that "single, free women of midcentury Natchez manipulated a male-dominated social order with surprising agility by accommodating rather than challenging culturally embedded dictates governing female behavior and expectations" (p. 10). Natchez's single, free women did this by fulfilling the servant ideal, the notion that female, nonwhite male, and enslaved members of the hierarchical southern social order all worked for the benefit of the white men at the top. Broussard argues that by accepting their part in the servant ideal, which simultaneously met the dictates of womanhood, single, free women in Natchez could gain the same self-esteem and social respect that women otherwise got from marriage. Stepping Lively in Place makes clear that women who chose not to marry, or not to remarry, otherwise upheld the slaveholding patriarchy, and therefore their peers did not question their singleness. Broussard examines the lives of Natchez's single, free women from a plethora of vantage points to show that unmarried status did not prevent women from living full, engaged lives.
Throughout the study, Broussard's focus remains squarely on showing how the actions of single women worked to maintain the slaveholding patriarchy through the servant ideal. She claims that in antebellum Natchez, free black single women lived relatively uncontested lives because "their sexual, emotional, and familial connections generally complemented, rather than threatened, a prevailing social order held together in large part by slavery, white male domination, and the servant ideal" (p. 136). But the interpretation that single women actively supported the slaveholding patriarchy because they worked within the system rather than against it assumes that these women had other viable options. Broussard argues that divorce was viewed as a logical way to resolve marital discord, and therefore women who divorced their husbands actually helped reinforce men's paternalistic roles. Yet she also acknowledges that the grounds for divorce in antebellum Mississippi were slim and that the more precisely a woman could prove her claims of the permissible reasons to end a marriage--excessive abuse, abandonment, and adultery--the more likely the divorce would be granted. Whether this constitutes the manipulation of the patriarchy as Broussard claims is debatable, but what makes Broussard's contribution important is the scope of her study.
Broussard draws on personal papers, legal documents, and other public records to explore the lives of free, single women, black and white, rich and poor. Her ability to cover women from all walks of life is impressive and enriches Stepping Lively in Place. Although the first three chapters pertain to white women, chapter 5 is devoted to the experiences of single, free black women, and the chapters on female criminals and the impact of the Civil War cover both groups. She uses sketches of individual women to demonstrate the wide range of lived experiences within each category of singleness. For instance, she profiles Lydia Dowell, a "foul-mouthed" merchant, and Rebecca Mandeville, a respectable white southern belle, to show the diversity of the never-married women of Natchez (p. 33). When discussing groups of women who left behind fewer records, Broussard profiles more individuals so as to make up for lack of source material on each one. This approach enriches the narrative and makes Stepping Lively in Place a welcome addition to the scholarship on single women.
Kelly Weber Stefonowich
Virginia Beach, Virginia
QUOTED: "Good monographs are like specialty stores: their 'goods' are deeply-researched specialized historical evidence that amplifies a subject and offers new information on a particular topic, the corollary of a unique piece of clothing that highlights an outfit. Such is the case with Joyce Linda Broussard’s excellent Stepping Lively in Place."
"The writing is lively and informative despite the staggering but useful number of statistics."
"Overall this is an excellent example of how a look at a singular community adds to our historical 'store' of knowledge."
Stepping Lively in Place: The Not-Married, Free Women of Civil-War-Era Natchez, Mississippi
by Broussard, Joyce
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Retail Price: $29.95
Issue: Winter 2017
ISBN: 9780820349725
Spirited Single Women in Mid-Century Natchez
Good monographs are like specialty stores: their “goods” are deeply-researched specialized historical evidence that amplifies a subject and offers new information on a particular topic, the corollary of a unique piece of clothing that highlights an outfit. Such is the case with Joyce Linda Broussard’s excellent Stepping Lively in Place. As the title indicates, this is a study of unmarried women in Natchez, the port city along the Mississippi mostly during the antebellum period. After a background chapter on the setting in Natchez, Broussard focuses in individual chapters on not-married, divorced, and widowed white women, dissecting the ways in which these single women survived in a traditional system that privileged white males and expected adult women to be dutiful wives.
In subsequent chapters Broussard turns her attention to free black women and what she calls the disorderly, not-married white and black women of antebellum Natchez, that is those who had some contact with the criminal justice system. Two final chapters move from the ante-bellum period to cover single women during the Civil War and post-war period. Enslaved women who held no legal status before the war are not included until after their emancipation; some married women whose male relatives were killed in the war or die soon after are included in these last two chapters as women living without male authority in their households.
Broussard does not—in fact could not—offer Natchez as typical of southern cities and hence she does not extend her conclusions to other southern communities, though she does argue that they fit a pattern of single women, as neither typical nor aberrant due to their marital circumstances. Broussard’s sustaining motif of stepping lively suggests how these single women—divorced, never-married, widowed and abandoned--operated in a white, male-dominated world, maneuvering in times of war and peace “with amazing dexterity.” (P. 239) But as Broussard makes clear they were never activists in the sense of envisioning political changes for all women, much less organizing, as their sisters in the North increasingly did. But they did step out, living in the shadows, moving on their own, stepping on the edge and during Reconstruction, stepping into the breach.
This book began as a dissertation but in its present form it has none of the characteristic deficiencies the academy associates with dissertations. The writing is lively and informative despite the staggering but useful number of statistics. A case in point: while we assume that most adult women are married, 40% of the 1200 women living in Natchez in 1860 were single. In one of Broussard’s central themes, they are not aberrations as we have been led to believe because of their absence from the historical literature. Broussard acknowledges a recent body of scholarship that focuses on spinsterhood, although she is correct that most of these studies concentrate on elite women. Her study does not, as we learn about single women who were prostitutes, criminals, and in one case simply “foul-mouthed.” Broussard is careful to note comparative material but she might have spent more time developing the reasons for the differences in her findings from other similar studies.
Broussard’s conceptualization is discreet, persuasive and only occasionally redundant. The research on which Broussard bases her conclusions is exhaustive and should stand as a model for anyone doing women’s history where the sources are often illusive. Indeed one of the contributions of this book is its use of every available source—from court records to manuscript collections, from census records to the freedman’s bureau materials, from statistics to mini-biographies.
At stake in Stepping Lively is the operative common law distinction separating feme soles with limited legal rights and married femmes couvertes, the latter without legal identity after their marriage. Broussard describes the prevailing southern ideology of white male mastery that established cultural values glorifying marriage and the subordination of married women as helpmates. She writes on page 6 that this system based on the “servant ideal” offered women “a protected albeit second-class citizenship covered by the authority of paternalistic husbands who often viewed women as wards deserving of a white man’s protection and care in return for faithful service and obedience.” The question Broussard seeks to answer in its most simplistic terms is how did single women in Natchez navigate such a system in the ante-bellum period and later during the Civil War’s disruptions? As she writes in her introduction “By looking at the entirety of single free women in midcentury Natchez,…this book explores how the city’s single women …from all walks of life coped, survived, and endured over time in a wealthy, slave-driven community ripped apart by war and its tumultuous aftermath.” (p. 9)
Throughout Broussard has humanized her statistical material by including profiles—biographical mini-narratives of individual women. For example in the chapter on never-married white women Lydia Dowell, viewed as foul-mouthed by some of her neighbors, operated two successful shops in the city. The memorable widow Madame Gireaudeau lived comfortably in a well-appointed home with a retinue of enslaved, many of whom she emancipated. Only after her death did the community learn that she was the child of a mixed-race mother and in the racial calculus of the times, a free black, subject to various restrictions. Margaret Dent, a free black, earned her living as a washerwoman while she enjoyed a sexual relationship with a wealthy white planter and slaveholder who remembered her in his will.
War and its aftermath upended the cultural norms of this antebellum society, though they did not entirely displace male, white authority. Still women had new opportunities during the war and Reconstruction. Broussard’s chapter on these women during the Civil War is a stand-alone classic of a community at war.
Overall this is an excellent example of how a look at a singular community adds to our historical “store” of knowledge.
Jean Harvey Baker is the Bennett-Hayward Professor of history at Goucher College. She is the author of ten books including a biography of James Buchanan and Mary Todd Lincoln as well as a textbook on Civil War and Reconstruction history. She is currently writing a biography of the architect and engineer Benjamin Henry Latrobe.