SPANISH AMERICAN WAR & GENDER
"Tableau representing Confederate and Union reconciliation to free Cuba - Spanish American War" Image and quote above from www.uiowa.edu/.../ politicalphotos/spanAmer.html
Nurses during the Spanish American War on the hospital ship Relief in Cuban waters Image above from www.army.mil/cmh-pg/ documents/spanam/WS-ANC.htm
Nurses with patients during the Spanish American War Image above from chnm.gmu.edu/.../ hist615petrikdesignproject.htm Images of The Spanish American War in Relation to Gender and Manhood
Image above from history.sandiego.edu/ gen/documents/sawar2.html
Image above from www.wheelerplantation.org/ the.htm
Image above from www.socialstudieshelp.com/Lesson 60 Notes.htm
Spanish American War and Gender By James Hatch
On the eve of American entry in the Spanish American War, Senator Hernando de Soto Money, a Democrat from Mississippi, argued in an address to Congress that a war with Spain would bring benefits to individual Americans, as well as American society: …War brings out not the commercial trait, not the business instinct, not the training faculties, not the skill to corner articles of general consumption at the cost of the consumer, not short cuts to wealth, but war brings out all the best traits of character. It teaches us devotion, self-abnegation, courage. It teaches us to offer upon the altar of our country everything dear to us-sons and brothers and fathers and all that goes to make life happy and holy. It teaches us to rise above the petty, the unworthy, the selfish. It broadens our nature, and in my opinion a wholesome war, like one for human liberty and human life, will have its purgatorial effect upon the nation and we will come out of it, like the Phoenix from its ashes, renewed and with glory.1 In the quote above, Senator Money stresses that American males will achieve a renewed sense of glory in a war with Spain. Furthermore, Money suggests that a war would offer a clear path for American men to obtain manhood. What is manhood? How is manhood developed? And why in society is it necessary to be manly? These questions were of pivotal importance when the United States was deciding to enter the Spanish American War in 1898, however they have become largely excluded from modern discussion of the Spanish American War. Until recently, gender analysis has been excluded from our understanding of politics and war. This essay examines the Spanish American War through a gendered lens. I am not arguing that gender issues were the sole cause of the war, but instead that gender helped build the framework or societal notions necessary to lead America to war. Furthermore, I will discuss how masculinity began to define pre-Spanish American War America, and how these ideas affected the experiences of women in the Spanish American War. Cultural Understandings of Masculinity and War in 1898During the years before the declaration of war with Spain, many American men felt that a war with Spain would have positive outcomes for society- most importantly that war would create an atmosphere that would support American manhood.2 These men came from every region in America; they represented all classes and political leanings. The one common factor uniting many pro-war men was their commitment to a just war, a war that would help to reinstate American values of honor, manhood, and justness.3 The American public held a common perception before the onset of the Spanish American War that war linked itself with manhood; furthermore much of the American populace felt that “true men” settled conflicts through war, while less courageous and manly individuals settled conflict through arbitration.4 The successful efforts of the pro-war faction to persuade American citizens through gendered language and propaganda about true manhood, led Americans to believe that their honorable option in dealing with Spain was violence and war. The motives of the pro-war fraction in America stemmed in part from a widespread anxiety about masculinity, brought on by the social changes wrought by urbanization and industrialization.5 During this period, middle and upper-class men expressed concerns that their increasingly common white-collar jobs were making men soft and less rugged.6 In addition, middle class men feared that a decline in their collective manhood would destroy their racial and class systems, as well as blur their superior relationship to women.7 To many American middle-class men, war was the only plausible option to regain the manhood or manly nature they had lost due to a perceived over-civilization of culture. Like the Civil War generation, men of the Spanish American War era longed to have a war that would present a challenge to overcome through manly triumph, which would eventually contribute to reestablishing American manhood.8 All factors suggest that men during the pre-Spanish American War era were determined to achieve manhood regardless of the casualties or consequences. On February 15, 1898 the U.S. battleship Maine, stationed in Havana, Cuba, exploded and sank, killing nearly 270 men. Americans immediately blamed the Maine disaster on the Spanish, who refused to apologize or offer reparations, and instead suggested that the men of the Maine were the ones at fault.9 The discussion of fault quickly shifted to a discussion of American honor. Many pro-war American men believed that the attack of the Maine was not only an attack on a U.S. battleship, but also a strike on American values, honor, respectability, and most importantly, manhood. The Maine disaster acted as the perfect piece of propaganda, which advanced the pro-war point of view because of a supposed assault against American manhood. The Maine disaster became such a useful propaganda tool that anti-war congressional representatives feared being labeled dishonorable if they did not support the war. This fear ultimately undermined their anti-war stance, themselves, and the legitimacy of their political parties because of the popular pro-war principles, which were largely articulated through rhetoric of masculinity, and ideals of manhood.10 The racial and gendered rhetoric rampant in the Spanish American war fueled the pro-war and imperialists interest in the Philippines. Pro-war imperialists often portrayed and imagined the Filipinos as savages, children, and feminine figures; this depiction of the Filipinos helped American imperialists justify their desire to govern the Philippines.11 These racialized and gendered representations of the Filipinos were important to the imperialists for two reasons. First, a feminine savage child could never govern her own country, and secondly the images justified American men as the only legitimate representative of civilization and political power.12 The representation of Filipinos as inferior to white Americans by pro-war advocates led to a situation of extreme racism that allowed for the degradation of the Filipino people as a whole. Although the Spanish American War began as an attempt to restore American honor and manhood by liberating the Cubans from Spanish repression, it became something very different from what champions of a renewed American manhood had envisioned, and attempted to portray.13 Instead of achieving the sought after manhood, men created a disaster- in which the United States Army temporarily occupied Cuba, annexed Puerto Rico and Guam, and entered into a bloody colonial war with the Philippines that involved over 126,000 American soldiers, 4,000 of whom were casualties.14 As soon as American soldiers began losing their lives over foreign issues, many people, including previous supporters of the war began examining the war from a new perspective- the war as a failure. A failure not only to achieve the political goals of the United States, but also a failure of renewed American masculinity because the American male did not reclaim his manhood through the war. Near the end of the war, many of the gendered cultural understandings geared towards reinstating American manhood became less prominent or evident because of the increasing tragedies of the war. Furthermore, the promise that war would create American manhood became increasingly less popular and convincing to the American public because of the obvious tragedies of war. Moreover the pro-war supporters were largely discredited. Women’s Experiences in the Spanish American WarWhile concerns about masculinity informed debates over the war, women were serving many different roles during the Spanish American War. They worked as nurses, raised funds in support of wartime needs such as medical supplies, and were active in political opposition to the war. Like most men of the era, mainstream women eagerly supported the war effort in any way possible.15 After the declaration of war, many politically active women helped to revamp their political organizations in an effort to help fundraise for the war effort.16 Activist women mostly contributed through fund raising, sending supplies, and taking care of soldiers stationed in the United States.17 The ideas of manhood and the Spanish American War affected men and women differently but also acted as a uniting force for both. The overwhelming popular support for the Spanish American War made it attractive to both sexes and genders, largely because both romanticized the idea of manhood in American society.18 Women also served the war effort as combat nurses, an opportunity that had been unavailable to women before the Spanish American War. Approximately 1,500 nurses were recruited to serve in the Spanish American War, although the official creation of the Women’s Army Corp (WAC) did not take place until 1901.19 Furthermore, the extraordinary service provided by nurses in the Spanish American War paved the way for not only a permanent nurse corps, but also a new career field for women.20 The more than 1,500 nurses that served in the Spanish American War found themselves in Hawaii, Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, as well as the hospital ship Relief.21 During service in the Spanish American War upwards of twenty nurses lost their lives to typhoid and yellow fever.22 In an era of extreme racism and nation-wide racial tension, the United States Army, despite Jim Crow laws, attempted to prevent the loss of nurses by recruiting 80 African American nurses to assist with the care of soldiers. These women were valuable because they were for the most part immune to both typhoid and yellow fever, making them able to work with white soldiers and nurses without the fear of catching a disabling illness.23 The majority of African-American women who served as nurses in the Spanish American War went to Santiago, Cuba where the epidemics were the most devastating.24 It is very intriguing to examine the African American nurses’ unique position in history, and how in a time of such racial hostility, the United States Army would be willing to ignore racial and gender norms and allow African-American women to take care of American soldiers. Moreover it would be useful to explore the motives of the U.S. army; did the army see African-American nurses as simply a means to a successful end, or was the army consciously willing to challenge the racial injustices of the time? The third and final way in which women experienced the Spanish American War was through their opposition. One extraordinary example of a pacifist woman who opposed the Spanish American War is the famous Jane Addams. Addams was a strict pacifist who often expressed her disgust with war as well as the commercial interests of war.25 In an article published by Addams in 1900 she argues against the commercial interests of war, stating: It has been the time-honored custom to attribute unjust wars to the selfish ambition of rulers, who remorselessly sacrifice their subjects to satisfy their greed. But, as Lecky has recently pointed out, it remains to be seen whether or no(t) democratic rule will diminish war. Immoderate and uncontrolled desires are at the root of most national as well as individual crimes and a large number of people may be moved by unworthy ambitions quite as easily as few. If a large body of people accustom themselves to the commercial view of life, to consider the extension of trade as the test of national prosperity, it becomes comparatively easy for mere extension of commercial opportunity to assume a moral aspect and receive the moral sanction.26 Addams argued that if a country allows consumerism to dominate their national identity, then it will not be difficult for a consumer-driven society to morally justify a war based on commercial opportunity. Moreover, I believe Addams is arguing that once commercial opportunity is morally sanctioned, it is inevitable that war will occur because of humankind’s greed. ConclusionThe complex cultural negotiations over and anxieties surrounding gendered ideas of manhood, honor, and respectability contributed to an atmosphere that welcomed the onset of war. Examining these issues helps to deepen our understanding both of the war, and of how political ideas and discussion are made more potent through the use of gendered language. Finally, it is my wish that you go away from my presentation of the Spanish American War with a question about gender that you are determined to answer, so as we can all benefit from your curiosity.
1. Quote from Sen. Hernando de Soto Money in Kristin Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish American and Philippine American Wars (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 73. 2. Kristin Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish American and Philippine American Wars (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 8. 3. (Hoganson 1998, 8) 4. (Hoganson 1998, 16) 5. (Hoganson 1998, 200) 6. (Hoganson 1998, 201) 7. Ibid 8. Ibid 9. (Hoganson 1998, 68) 10. (Hoganson 1998, 87) 11. (Hoganson 1998, 155) 12. Ibid 13. Ibid 14. Ibid 15. (Hoganson 1998, 107) 16. Ibid 17. Ibid 18. Ibid 19. Rosemarie Skaine, Women at War: Gender Issues of Americans in Combat (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 1999), 52-53. 20. (Skaine 1999, 52-53) 21. Ibid 22. Ibid 23. Ibid 24. Ibid 25. Jane Addams, “Commercialism Disguised as Patriotism and Duty,” Affilia 6, no. 2 (Summer 1991): 5-8. 26. (Addams 1991, 5)
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