So Sweet to Labor: Rural Women in America 1865 - 1895

This book brings to life the years between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the century by using a sampling of articles, letters, poems and essays written by and for rural women. It describes the daily life of country women and girls. While these writings reflected the labor and hardship that characterized the lives of most of the publications' readers; yet the editorial stance of these publications continued to idealize the vision of a farmer's wife.