Includes bibliographical references (p. [317]-345) and index.

Angelina Grimké Weld. "We are a nation of changes": America at the crossroads in the 1830s -- "I think much suffering awaits me": Angelina Grimké's journey to reform -- "Make me instrumental in the great work of emancipation": Angelina Grimké's letter to The liberator -- "This is all like a dream now; but I can't undream it": Angelina becomes an abolitionist -- "I laid my difficulty at the feet of Jesus": The burden of being a woman -- "You have had my whole heart": A season of surprises -- "We abolition women are turning the world upside down": Triumphs and retirement -- "I cannot tell thee how I love this private life": Angelina and domesticity -- "Innumerable, horrible, unspeakable, earthy, sensual and devilish distortions of married life": The crisis years at home -- This is not an in memoriam, it is a war-cry": The last years of Angelina Grimké.

Varina Howell Davis. "The happy fireside": The deep South before the Civil War -- From the briars to the hurricane: Varina Banks Howell and Jefferson Davis -- "The desire I have to be with you every day and all day": The courtship of Jefferson Davis and Varina Howell -- "Calmer, discreeter, happier & lovelier": The months at Brierfield -- "How grand and blasé the people all looked": The first Washington experience -- "The heart at last, if it is well governed, makes the heaven": War, injury, and domestic discord -- "The Southern rights cause is the losing one now": The return to Washington, D.C. -- "We felt blood in the air": Personal and public tragedies -- "Everybody is scared": John Brown, the fire eaters, Lincoln, and secession -- "Civil war has only horror for me": Varina becomes the first lady of the Confederacy -- "The people of our country rose in their might": From first lady to refugee -- "I never report unfit for duty": Varina begins her campaigns for freedom -- "I saw Mr. Davis's shrunken form and glassy eyes": The reunion at Fortress Monroe -- "The business is finished": Jefferson Davis goes free -- "Our once happy homes": Varina's postwar odyssey -- "In the course of human events I shall probably go down to Mr. Davis's earthly paradise": Separation and reconciliation -- "Other refuge have we none": Life and death at Beauvoir -- "Her conversation is superlatively interesting": Varina's years of independence.

Julia Dent Grant. The winds of change, the shelter of tradition - "One long summer of sunshine": Growing up in Missouri -- "But one sweetheart in his life": The courtship of Julia Dent Grant -- "His loving little wife": Creating a home and starting a family -- "Cheer up, make the best of this": The return to civilian life -- "As I was a Democrat at that time": The opportunities of war -- "The horrid old Constitution": Julia's personal war -- "If your mind is made up": Marital relations in wartime -- "There will be an outbreak tonight": Victory and assassination -- "What shouts went up!": A hero and his wife -- "Ulys, do you wish to be President?": The early White House years -- "Nice people, questionable people, and people who were not nice at all": Weddings and scandals in the White House -- "A waif on the world's wide common": Julia becomes a world traveler -- "Do you not desire success?": From politics to poverty -- "Warmed in the sunlight of his loyal love and great fame": Julia becomes a widow -- "Living again, with the aid of my fancy and my pen": Julia Dent Grant writes her memoirs.