Books by Jane Turner Censer

Researching the story of elite southern white women's successful quest for a measure of independence between antebellum strictures and the restored patriarchy of Jim Crow, this study shows how they rethought and rebuilt themselves during a brief but important period of relative freedom.

Challenging commonly held assumptions about the attitudes and actions of the pre-Civil War southern elite, Jane Turner Censer draws on an impressive array of primary and secondary sources to show that southern planters, at least in their relations with their children, were caring, affectionate, and surprisingly egalitarian.