Women During the Civil War" "I want something to do..." "Write a book," says the author of my being. "I don't know enough, sir. First live, then write." "Try teaching again," my mother suggested. "No, thank you, ma'am, ten years is enough." "Take a husband like my Darby and accomplish your mission," said the sister Joan. “You cannot afford expensive luxuries, Mrs. Coobiddy.” “Go and nurse the soldiers,” said my young brother Tom. “I will!” This is a dialogue between Louisa May Alcott and her relatives. Miss Alcott, like many other African American women, helped serve in the Civil War. During the Civil War, Miss Alcott worked at various jobs. Working primarily as a writer, she held positions as a nurse, teacher, and volunteered in soldiers' aid societies (Harper 14). These were just a sampling of the jobs that African American women held during the Civil War. African American women, whether free or enslaved, found the Civil War an opportunity for them to free themselves from slavery. It was a moment in their lives where they had the chance to find freedom. While they knew they wouldn't be able to directly influence this opportunity, they had the opportunity to make an impact. While their husbands, fathers, or male relatives were at war, African American women had to find a way to support their families. African American women worked as nurses, maids, laundresses, cooks, seamstresses, and ran boarding houses. They also managed to continue the education of young people by becoming teachers, volunteering in churches, and creating literary and moral improvement societies. The most common job of African American women during the Civil War was nursing. African American women were usually the backbone of the hospital staff…center of paper…and many families ended up starving. Many of these women were forced to make their own clothes and shoes. It would be the only way they could dress their children. Women who had jobs found themselves wearing formal clothes to work because their street clothes were so worn and threadbare. It was also the woman's duty to teach her children. Women not at war had to take on many responsibilities. Another role they had to endure was that of a nurse. One of the major disadvantages of living on a farm in the South was that your home would become a battlefield. With the war going on on the home front, women were invaded by wounded soldiers in their homes and forced to care for them (Massey 197-219). Even women who did not work on the battlefields still endured pain and suffering and sacrificed themselves for the betterment of their families and country.