Class Year
2022
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Frances Peter, a young epileptic woman, supported the Union in her divided town of Lexington, Kentucky. Although her family owned several slaves, she came to support the federal government’s emancipation policy and clearly distinguished her middle class Unionist family from the elite secessionist Southerners. She fiercely attacked the secessionist women in her community, criticizing them as hypocritical and unchristian. She took a more sympathetic tone in her view of Confederate troops, believing them to be uneducated, lower class men who had been duped by wealthy Southern politicians. Nevertheless, she condemned both groups for turning their backs on the Constitution, as she assumed an air of moral superiority in affirming her loyalty to the Union.
Recommended Citation
Uszak, Erica
(2020)
"Frances Peter: A Loyal Woman of Kentucky,"
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era: Vol. 10, Article 7.
Available at:
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/gcjcwe/vol10/iss1/7