"Scarlett's Sisters, the true story of the fictional character's flesh-and-blood counterparts, explores the meaning of nineteenth-century southern womanhood from the vantage point of a group poised to become their society's feminine ideal: young, elite, white women. Arguing that age is as important as class, race, and gender in historical analysis, Anya Jabour demonstrates that well-to-do white women coming of age in the Old South faced a major turning point when the Civil War forced them to assume new roles and responsibilities as women living independently of men."--BOOK JACKET.