Abstract: Southern women truly are half sisters of history.But it is my contention that halfsisters may have an advantage over their comfortably ensconced siblings; as both family and outsiders, they possess doubled perspectives.With these multiple lenses on the past, scholars in southern women's history are not condemned to the tunnel vision which has so hampered the fields within which they labor.They recognize that context does not merely add to our understanding but literally defines what we study.The shifting of definitions and contents dramatically reconfigures our perceptions of the past, with each new generation and over time.Women's history in the nineteenth century consisted primarily of biographical sketches of notable women who had made patriotic contributions to the nation.Many of these collective biographies are wonderful sources, but they rarely offer insight into historical periodization, gender constructions, and other issues critical to women's history today.When feminists tackled women's history in the closing decades of the last century, all too many writers confined their sights to women's traditional roles: women in education, women in religion, and women's contributions to what was increasingly designated "the domestic sphere."When production moved from the household into a separate workplace, scholars argue, roles and responsibilities became more gendered throughout American society.Women's activities were increasingly confined to sex-segregated areas, and home and family were labeled "woman's sphere.