Writer Karen Abbott is in town Tuesday to discuss Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, her book about women who were spies during the Civil War. She'll be in conversation with local author Denise Kiernan, who wrote Girls Of Atomic City.
Abbott, the author of several non fiction books and writer for the Smithsonian history blog Past Imperfect, is no stranger to history. But it wasn’t until just a couple of years ago, when she moved from her hometown of Philadelphia to Atlanta, when she realized that in the American South especially, the Civil War is part of a not so distant past.
And when it comes to Abbott’s new book, the question that got her started isn’t necessarily a new one either: “Everyone knows what the men were doing, but what were the women doing during the war?” Abbot said.
“They had no access to political discourse, they didn’t have the right to vote, they couldn’t have any influence on how the battles were waged.”
Much like world war in the 20th century, the Civil War meant that fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons were away from home, leaving women responsible for both running daily life and contributing to the war effort.
it, “Of course some of them just knitted uniforms and darned socks for the soldiers, some tried to raise money for supplies for the army,” Abbot said.
“And others plundered, lied, wheedled, spied and murdered their way through the war.”
It’s not necessarily difficult to imagine a civil war era lady, in her curls and corsets, darning socks for soldiers. But Abbott’s book tells the true stories of women who were undercover spies in the Civil War.
It’s a story of suspense and intrigue, yes-- but Abbott also tells the stories of women who use their status as members of the “fairer sex” as strength rather than liability.
“Women were able to take society’s constructs of them, and ideas about female gentility, and exploit them to their advantage so their femininity became a both physical and a psychological disguise,” Abbot said.
The four women in Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy are the different threads that weave into the tapestry Abbott creates, showing the diversity of what ladies could do in the war effort.
There was Elizabeth van Lew, who hid Union soldiers in her home in Richmond.
But there was also Emma Edmonds, who was 19 the first time she dressed as Frank Thompson so she could fight alongside Union soldiers. There’s a confederate sympathizer in Union territory.
Thist story is about invisible ink. ciphers, and spy rings, messages told in Morse Code with flickering curtains and elaborate fans.
Abbott has said one of her favorite things about researching for this book is that she likes to write about women whose lives she wished she lived.
“How do you compare?
“How do you compare with a 17 year old who shoots a Yankee solider in her parlor or, who secrets escaped prisoners to state lines or dashes across the battlefields in confrontation with Confederate guerillas? I feel like we’re in a much more boring and uncolorful time now than the past,” Abbot says. “There’s no element of surprise any more. it’s impossible to surpse anyone with anything. There’s no way to shock anyone.
“And I always appreciate how these women back then knew how to properly shock. No one knows how to shock any more.”
And that excitement in shock value is exactly what brings these stories of civil war- era lady spies to life.
Karen Abbott will read from, and sign copies of, her book tonight at 7 at Malaprop’s bookstore in downtown Asheville.
