a biography of the day-mary boykin chesnut (civil war diarist)

[niyad]

Mary Boykin Chesnut
March 31, 1823
Stateburg, South Carolina, US
Died November 22, 1886 (aged 63)

Known for Civil War diaries

Mary Boykin Chesnut, born Mary Boykin Miller (March 31, 1823 – November 22, 1886), was a South Carolina author noted for a book published as her Civil War diary, a "vivid picture of a society in the throes of its life-and-death struggle."[1] She described the war from within her upper-class circles of Southern planter society, but encompassed all classes in her book. She was married to a lawyer who served as a United States senator and Confederate officer.

Chesnut worked toward a final form of her book in 1881-1884, based on her extensive diary written during the war years. It was published after her death in 1905. New versions were published after her papers were discovered, in 1949 by the novelist Ben Ames Williams, and in 1981 by the historian C. Vann Woodward. His annotated edition of the diary, Mary Chesnut's Civil War (1981), won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1982. Literary critics have called Chesnut's diary "a work of art" and the most important work by a Confederate author.

. . . .


Like many of the planter elite, the Chesnuts fell onto hard times after the war. They lost 1,000 slaves as property through emancipation.[5] James Chesnut, Sr. died in 1866; his will left his son the use of Mulberry Plantation and Sandy Field, both of which were encumbered by debt, and eighty-three "slaves" by name, who were by then freedmen. The younger Chesnut struggled to build up the plantations and support his father's dependents.


Mary Boykin Chesnut began her diary on February 18, 1861, and ended it on June 26, 1865. She was an eyewitness to many historic events as she accompanied her husband to significant sites of the Civil War. Among them were Montgomery, Alabama and Richmond, Virginia, where the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America convened; Charleston, where she was among witnesses of the first shots of the Civil War; Columbia, South Carolina, where her husband served as the Chief of the Department of the Military of South Carolina and brigadier general in command of South Carolina reserve forces; and again Richmond, where her husband served as an aide to the president. At times they also lived with her parents-in-law at their house at Mulberry Plantation near Camden. While the property was relatively isolated in thousands of acres of plantation and woodland, they entertained many visitors.
. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Boykin_Chesnut

[lunasun]

1. Leslie Goddard in Illinois does a portrayal of Civil War Diarist Mary Chesnut.

In the first-person portrayal, Chesnut reads from her journal, sharing stories of the events unfolding around her and her often surprising perspectives on race, political power, and social status. Small wonder her journal has been called "the most famous war diary of a Southern woman" and "one of the best windows we have into southern society during the American Civil War."

[niyad]

2. thank you so much for sharing this--would love to be able to hear her.

[lunasun]

3. Oh she brings many women's stories to life

http://www.lesliegoddard.info/Portrayals.html

[niyad]

4. I noticed that she does abigail adams--interesting, since we are having a lengthy discussion about

her in gd.