The private and public writings in this volume reveal the early relationship between renowned Civil War diarist Sarah Morgan (1842-1909) and her future husband; Francis Warrington Dawson (1840-1889). Gathered here is a selection of their letters along with various articles that Morgan wrote anonymously for the Charleston News and Courier; which Dawson owned and edited.In January 1873 Morgan met Frank Dawson; an English expatriate; Confederate veteran; and newspaperman. By then Morgan had left her native Louisiana and was living near Columbia; South Carolina; with her younger brother; James Morris Morgan. When Sarah Morgan and Frank Dawson met; he was mourning the recent death of his first wife. She; in turn; was still grieving over her family’s many wartime losses.The couple’s relationship came to encompass both the personal and the professional. To free Morgan from an unhappy dependence on her brother; Dawson urged her to write professionally for his paper. During 1873 Morgan wrote more than seventy pieces on such topics as French and Spanish politics; race relations; the insanity plea; funerals; and fashion gossip―-editorials that caused a sensation in Charleston.Only after attaining financial independence through her secret newspaper career did Morgan marry Frank Dawson; in 1874. Morgan’s commentary gives us a candid portrayal of the way one southern woman viewed her postwar world―-even as she struggled to find her place in it.
#2380686 in Books 2016-06-07Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.90 x .50 x 6.00l; .0 #File Name: 0819576441208 pages
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. What We've Forgotten about the Pre-abolitionist Acceptance of Slave Trade and Why We Need to Start RememberingBy Gram1950Anne Farrow takes logbooks kept by Dudley Saltonstall; a young man from a prominent Connecticut merchant family; and uses them to illustrate the cruelty of the slave trade. This Connecticut trader thought of his captives as he did any other item he transported for profits and had no shame and felt no remorse. Saltonstall was commercially successful. Slave sales helped springboard the family to the upper strata of American wealth. Ms. Farrow’s point in writing the book is that America has forgotten how integral slavery was to our economy and growth. She uses her mother’s Alzheimer’s to as a metaphor for our flawed memory of slavery. Ms. Farrow argues that modern racism is a legacy from our unwillingness to honestly face what we as a nation did to captive people for money.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. This is a remarkable book!By Occidental TouristI read this book straight through -- except for the times when i had to stop and let what I had read flow over me in waves of sorrow and amazement.Ms Farrow is a beautifully effective writer with a deep understanding of what lies at the heart of our history and an unusually moving willingness to let us into the heart of her exploration of it and life.If you wonder why anyone today should think about slavery; read this book. If it is a topic that has concerned you all your life; read this book.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. this book reads like a memoirBy CustomerFascinating and well researched; this book reads like a memoir; both of the author's and the slave trader's son who kept the logs. I loved that she wove her mother's loss of memory into the book; relating it to our collective loss of memory as a nation. Anyone interested in the slave trade or American history should read this book.
