Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 18381839 [Paperback]

A passionate and influential critique of slavery in the American south, by the English wife of a slave-owner.Frances Anne Kembles journal, written during a brief residence on a Georgian plantation, records her encounters with her husbands slaves and attempts to expose the moral injustice of slavery. First published in 1863, Kembles journal remains a lasting and important critique of slavery in the nineteenth-century American south.Frances Anne Kembles journal, written during a brief residence on a Georgian plantation, records her encounters with her husbands slaves and attempts to expose the moral injustice of slavery. First published in 1863, Kembles journal remains a lasting and important critique of slavery in the nineteenth-century American south.A few years after her marriage to a wealthy American, the English stage-actress Frances Anne Kemble (18091893) moved with her husband to his residence in Georgia, where he had inherited two plantations. There she kept a journal of her shocking observations of the practice of slavery. Written over a period of less than four months, Kemble's journal records her day-to-day encounters with her husband's slaves, and attempts to expose the moral injustice of slavery. The journal circulated privately among her friends, but was not published until 1863, long after Kemble's divorce in 1849. Her book is credited with influencing Britain's position of neutrality during the American Civil War despite the cotton industry's lobbying in favour of the South. Kemble's journal remains a lasting and important critique of slavery, and a valuable document about the nineteenth-century American south.Preface; Journal; Appendix.