Party of Patriarchy: Democratic Gender Politics and the Coming of the Civil War

This dissertation argues that in the 1850s, Democratic Party leaders played on gender conservatism to unite their members at a time when they were profoundly divided. The new Republican Party offered a progressive vision of women’s rights and antislavery. Northern and southern Democrats alike countered by insisting on patriarchy both as an institution and as a symbol of their opposition to antislavery. The strategy ultimately backfired: southerners came to believe they alone supported slavery and patriarchy, and that only secession would protect both.