Women on Southern Stages, 1800-1865: Performance, Gender and Identity in a Golden Age of American Theater

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Women played an integral role on the South’s antebellum and Civil War stages, but theater histories have largely overlooked their contributions. Nineteenth-century southern actresses were important public figures who helped mold gendered identity in the region through their scripted theatrical roles and non-scripted social roles. Women performed stage parts selected by white men, but they subverted norms of femininity through their public personas and the independence they exercised in their everyday personal lives. Southern actresses also distinguished themselves by carving out an in-between class status. They were educated and often wealthy but never accepted by the region’s landed elite. Women who performed on stage contributed to the region’s small but important urban economy and frequently showed themselves to be sophisticated entrepreneurs. Actresses also helped shape racial perceptions and contributed to regional politics as the South entered the Civil War. Without actresses, there would have been no theater, which was the primary means of entertainment in the nineteenth century.