Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2022/Fall/Section087/Mary Rawls

Mary Rawls
Born	August 26th, 1847 Columbia, South Carolina
Occupation	Librarian, Post Office Worker
Parents	John Ivey Rawls (father) Elizabeth Geiger Rawls (mother)

Overview

Mary Rawls was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1847. She lived through many historical events, such as the Burning of Columbia during her college years and the Great Depression in her adult years. Rawls lived a simple life, studying hard in school during her early years, working at home, and taking various jobs in her later years.

Biography

Early Life

Mary Rawls was born on August 26th, 1847, on the corner of Taylor and Sumter St in Columbia, South Carolina, which is now the Prisma Health Baptist Hospital. Growing up, Ralws lived in a two-story frame home with horse stables, a carriage house, and outhouses for house servants. At home, Rawls had a piano that they would move upstairs to their dance hall at night to dance with her family and friends. Rawls' family was very close; she had two brothers and one sister, all of whom loved the holidays, specifically Christmas. Throughout these years, sanitation and water supply were an issue in the city. Rawls received her family’s water supply from a pump on a street corner, the same one firemen used to extinguish local fires with buckets.

Education

In Columbia, she attended a private school without grades, from which each child was given different textbooks to learn. Students would stay past school hours until they fully understood the material. Later in her life while in college in South Carolina, a riot took place where two boys were arrested but later released without punishment. This resulted in tension throughout the city as many citizens believed the boys should have punished. Rawls was also in college for the Secession Convention of 1960, where seceders unanimously broke the connection between South Carolina and the United States.

Adult Life

In Rawls' adult years, she resided in her sister’s home in Fairfield for some time, taking care of her sister’s children. Rawls helped as a member of the Lend a Hand Library. At the time of the interview, Rawls was the only surviving member of the library. Rawls also worked in the Columbia Post Office for eleven years and saved money. However, because of hospital visits and bank failures, she lost all the money. At the age of 91, Rawls was an inmate of the Confederate Home in Columbia and was grateful to the Lord, who took care of her over the years.

Social Context

Gender Inequality in the 1800s and Early 1900s

During the early 1800s, women's roles were changing. The Market Revolution, occurring in the 1820s and 1830s, led to a decline in farming for subsistence and a significant increase in commercial economic life. This Market Revolution reduced the number of women in jobs such as spinning and weaving cloth. During this time, the "home" was a topic of discussion, and the number of women nurturing men and children in the household increased, changing gender roles at the time. However, during this time period, a lot of legislation was in place to restrict women in the workplace. It was assumed that women's needs as a mother and caretakers were far different from their actual needs making fighting for equality difficult and even dangerous.

Racial Inequality in the Education System in the Late 1800s

After the Civil War, many efforts were made to support equal education despite race, religion, sex, etc. One of the greatest efforts for African Americans was the Freedmen's Bureau. This was an Act passed by congress in 1865 which attempted to provide shelter, food, medical care, and land to displaced Southerners, many of which were newly freed slaves. The Freedmen's Bureau opened Howard School in Columbia, South Carolina. Howard School remained the only public school in Columbia open to blacks for fifty years following the war. Many African American families moved to Columbia or sent their children to live with others in Columbia, as there were so few educational opportunities for African Americans at this time in the South. In addition, with the literacy rate among freed slaves being five percent, education was seen as the best way to earn full citizenship. In the late 1800s, Northerners began teaching in southern black schools. Many of these teachers broke away from the South's ideology and taught social equality and the North's views. As expected there was backlash in the South, in some cases, the Ku Klux Klan even burned schoolhouses.

The Civil War: The Burning of Columbia

Sketch of The Burning of Columbia.

On Feburary 16th, 1865, as the Civil War was coming to an end, a Union army made up of 58,000 men, led by General William T. Sherman, marched towards Columbia determined to capture the Capital. The Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard poorly distributed his forces leading to the Union army overpowering the capital. On Feburary 17th, Governor T.J. Goodwyn surrendered Columbia to the Union with the request that the citizens of Columbia are treated with "the usages of civilized warfare" and for "the Army to maintain order in the City and to protect the persons and property of the Citizens." However, Confederate General Wade Hampton ordered for cotton bales to be taken out of warehouses and burned so the Union would not get to them. As a result of this and other fires started in the night, the city was destroyed, and even store fronts were looted. It is still up to debate on whether it was the Union or Confederate army who started the first of the fires that rampaged the city.

References

1. Bartels, Virginia. 1984. “The History of South Carolina Schools.” The Organization of Public Education in South Carolina. https://www.teachercadets.com/uploads/1/7/6/8/17684955/history_of_south_carolina_schools.pdf.
2. Lucas, Marion. 2015. “Columbia, Burning Of.” South Carolina Encyclopedia. University of South Carolina, Institute for Southern Studies. 2015. https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/columbia-burning-of/.
3. Moran, Mickey. “1930s, America - Feminist Void?” Loyola University, 1988. http://people.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1988-9/moran.htm.
4. senate.gov. 2017. “U.S. Senate: Freedmen’s Bureau Acts of 1865 and 1866.” Senate.gov. January 12, 2017. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/FreedmensBureau.htm.
5. Warder, Graham. “Women in Nineteenth-Century America.” Social Welfare History Project. Keene State College, March 13, 2018. https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/woman-suffrage/women-in-nineteenth-century-america-2/
6. Waud, William. 1865. The Burning of Columbia, South Carolina. Harper’s Weekly, v. 9, No. 432 (April 8, 1865), P. 217. https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/File:The_burning_of_Columbia,_South_Carolina,_February_17,_1865.jpg.
7. W, Dixon. “Dixon, W. W. (interviewer): Mary Rawls” Federal Writers’ Project papers. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Southern Historical Collection. 1938. https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/03709/id/1064/rec/1.
8. Webb, Ashley. 2015. “The Burning of Columbia.” Emerging Civil War. February 18, 2015. https://emergingcivilwar.com/2015/02/18/the-burning-of-columbia/.