Women's roles in history discussed

Author gives speech on diverse jobs of women during the Civil War

Kristy Nicolich / photo editor In period dress, author Kim Murphy shows a picture of a woman who fought in the Civil War.

An author of a trilogy of books on women's roles as spies, smugglers and prostitutes during the Civil War spoke to students and community members at Barnes & Noble Thursday night.

Kim Murphy, author of "Promise and Honor" and "Honor and Glory," spoke to a group of 10 on the many different roles that women played throughout the Civil War.

She wore a traditional hoop skirt that women would have worn during the Civil War and showed the group pictures of famous women, such as Harriet Tubman, who played important roles during that era.

Her book highlights these roles. "Kim Murphy's novel, "Honor and Glory," takes a journey through smuggling, war prisons, battle wounds, sickness, childbirth, and other tests of endurance," according to http://www.amazon.com.

According to Murphy, women were smugglers, soldiers, nurses, slaves, spies, laundresses and prostitutes during the war.

She said smugglers would tie goods to their hoop skirts and sew pockets in their petticoats to sneak supplies of which they were short into the South.

"Women were often treated more like children and so they less often got caught," Murphy said.

The same was true for women spies. One spy was a Richmond socialite who spied on the South for the Union, according to Murphy. She would receive information from prisoners, and would help hide ones who had escaped. She even got one of her freed slaves into the Confederate White House to collect information for her, according to Murphy.

Women even fought in the war, either because they wanted adventure or to follow their men, according to Murphy.

Several students from JMU attended for class credit.

"I'm in a women's history class, and we have to keep journals," sophomore Abby Boxler said. "We can use all kinds of events for entries, such as movies, plays, speakers and interviews. We thought this would be a great event to come to.

"We've talked about some of this stuff in class. It was a very informative presentation, " she added.