Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839

by Frances Anne Kemble

Overview

Fanny Kemble was one of the leading lights of the English theater in the nineteenth century. During a triumphant tour of America, she met and married a wealthy Philadelphian, Pierce Butler, part of whose fortune derived from his family’s vast cotton and rice plantation on the Sea Islands of Georgia. After their marriage, she spent several months (December 1838 to April 1839) living on the plantation. Profoundly shocked by what she saw, she recorded her observations of plantation life in a series of journal entries written as letters to a friend. But she never sent the letters, and it was not until the Civil War was on and Fanny was divorced from her husband and living in England, were they published.
 
She is a reporter par excellence and records in vivid detail not just her own reactions, but the day-to-day operations of the estate as a business enterprise, the lives of the several “classes” of Negro slaves and their white masters, and the plantation’s landscape of swamps and woods, canals and rivers, stately houses and decrepit hovels. Her account is filled with drama: duels, deaths, jealousies, and episodes of humor and tenderness which lighten the gloom but also accentuate the sadness of a world of toil and misery.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307829672
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/04/2013
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	740,465
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE was a member of a famous theatrical family, and was herself one of the leading lights of the English stage in the nineteenth century. She also published two plays, a volume of poetry, and a number of memoirs about her travels and acting career.

JOHN A. SCOTT (1916–2010) was a prolific author and editor of both scholarly and general-interest works of American and European history. He taught for many years at the progressive Fieldston School in the Bronx, New York. Although born in England, he served in the U.S. Army in World War II. He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, for which he received a Purple Heart and American citizenship.

JOHN A. SCOTT (1916–2010) was a prolific author and editor of both scholarly and general-interest works of American and European history. He taught for many years at the progressive Fieldston School in the Bronx, New York. Although born in England, he served in the U.S. Army in World War II. He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, for which he received a Purple Heart and American citizenship.

Frances Anne Kemble (Author)
FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE was a member of a famous theatrical family, and was herself one of the leading lights of the English stage in the nineteenth century. She also published two plays, a volume of poetry, and a number of memoirs about her travels and acting career.

John A. Scott (Editor)
JOHN A. SCOTT (1916–2010) was a prolific author and editor of both scholarly and general-interest works of American and European history. He taught for many years at the progressive Fieldston School in the Bronx, New York. Although born in England, he served in the U.S. Army in World War II. He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, for which he received a Purple Heart and American citizenship.

Editorial Reviews

Long recognized as unique in the literature of American slavery and of life in the antebellum South.

Virginia Quarterly Review

A classic study of life and the living conditions of both owners and slaves.

Florida Historical Quarterly

A leading British actress, Fanny Kemble married a wealthy Philadelphian during her American tour in 1834. She abandoned the stage and settled into married life, initially unaware of her husband's 'dreadful possessions,' some 700 slaves on his coastal Georgia plantations. Her Journal covers a period of almost four months, recording grief and outrage at the depredations of slavery. . . . The University of Georgia Press has restored a rightful classic to print.

Atlanta Magazine