Historians such as Suzanne Lebsock have been interested in the extent to which southern women’s access to property gave them freedom and autonomy. Looking at Petersburg women of different classes and races, evaluate how much freedom they had in the household, in general decision making, and in their sexual behavior. How does their freedom and position compare with that of Helen Jewett or the young women who worked in textile mills in New England? Reference: The Free Women of Petersburg by Suzanne LesbocK

In her study of Petersburg, Virginia from 1784 to 1865, Lebsock draws one major conclusion. Throughout the period under study, she observes, women "experienced increased autonomy...in the sense of freedom from utter dependence on men." This increased autonomy was based on a wide variety of economic activities:

Relatively speaking, fewer women were married, more women found work for wages, and more women acquired separate estates, that is, property their husbands could not touch. 

Because of these changes, Lebsock concludes that Petersburg was a case study for how women's circumstances could improve in an antifeminist setting. Of course, they could not participate directly in politics, and Lebsock runs into frustrating silences on the issue of sexuality and reproduction. She also notes that poor women were more likely to control their own estates than wealthy ones. But overall, she finds many women making choices to control their own, or at least a piece of their own, economic destinies. She also finds a certain "women's value system" in how women bequeathed property, giving it to people they thought most deserving. Overall, she detects a unique woman's culture in Petersburg, one which featured women making their own rational economic decisions. It is fairly easy to find parallels between this culture and that of Lowell, where women (not just young girls) in the workplace found a certain degree of autonomy related directly to their ability to earn for themselves. Lowell mill workers, mostly women, went on strike multiple times during the antebellum period, and formed their own union, a remarkable move in the 1830s, when unions were banned in many states. But they, like the women Lebsock chronicles in Petersburg, are an example of how women could shape their own surroundings even in a highly patriarchal society.
 
 
https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-events/lowell-mill-women-form-union

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Free_Women_of_Petersburg.html?id=OW8uD0kHsB4C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button

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