Betty Mitchell

Professor, History Department

My major fields of teaching interests are the Civil War and Reconstruction period, United States Women’s History, and United States Labor History. I am also interested in studying these areas through biography and oral history. In my Lizzie Borden history course, first developed by professors at UMass Amherst, students study this fascinating murder case through the use of primary sources.

My research includes a biography of southern secessionist, Edmund Ruffin, and several Civil War articles. I am currently looking at the lives of two l9th century women—Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Packard—in order to better study the treatment of female insanity.