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

Kemble, Fanny, 1809-1893Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.2
Word count
639K words
Chapters
64

Tags

English Originals Documentary Literature SlaveryRacial IssuesSocial RecordPlantation DiaryDocumentary NarrativeGeorgia ScenesAbolitionismFemale Perspective

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation: 1838-1839 by Fanny KembleAuthor: Kemble, Fanny, 1809-1893,Language: English, Class: F206: United States local history: The South. South Atlantic States, Release Date: May 1, 2004

Editor's review

This diary-form work records the observations of English actress Fanny Kemble during her residence on a Georgia plantation from 1838 to 1839, and is an important primary source for studying Southern society before the American Civil War. From a first-hand perspective, the author meticulously depicts the daily operation of the plantation, the labor and living conditions of the enslaved, and the attitudes and customs of the planter class. Its value lies not in literary rhetoric but in immediacy and factual detail: through the eyes of an outsider woman, readers can see how the institution was embedded in daily life and interpersonal relations. The book contains both sympathetic records of the enslaved people's circumstances and the author's own contradictions and limitations; this complexity is precisely what makes the source valuable. It is suitable as supplementary reading for courses in American history, slavery studies, gender and travel writing, and also for general readers interested in the nineteenth-century American South who wish to read slowly. Readers are advised to read with a critical awareness of primary sources, noting the constraints of the author's identity, observational perspective, and historical context, and not to treat it as an omniscient narrative.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the introduction or preface first to understand the author's identity and writing context, then proceed to the diary proper.
  2. Read through once chronologically, then a second time making excerpts around themes such as enslaved labor and family relations.
  3. While reading, mark the author's subjective judgments and observational facts to distinguish between them.
  4. Read alongside other Southern plantation records from the same period for cross-verification.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Is this book a novel or a historical source? It is a diary written by the author during her residence on a Georgia plantation, a primary source rather than a fictional novel. The book records daily observations and personal feelings that the author experienced firsthand; it has historical value but also carries the author's own standpoint and limitations, which readers should discern.
Can I understand it without a background in American history? You can read it, but some background knowledge is needed. It is advisable to first learn the basics of the nineteenth-century Southern plantation economy and slavery, then read the main text, which will go more smoothly. The figures and events in the book are mostly daily records and do not rely on complex theory; general readers can also enter into it by reading slowly.
What edition is this e-book? According to the information, this book is released by Project Gutenberg as a free e-book edition, in English, classified under Southern local history. It provides a public-domain text that is easy to search and cite, but usually does not include modern scholarly annotations; researchers needing depth should seek an annotated edition elsewhere.

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About the author

Kemble, Fanny, 1809-1893 Author

Fanny Kemble (1809-1893) was a nineteenth-century author best known for her diaries and memoirs, five of whose works are collected here. Her most widely known book, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation: 1838-1839, records life on a Southern plantation from firsthand observation and is valued as a historical source. Journal of a Residence in America continues this diary form, offering her immediate impressions of an unfamiliar society. Records of a Girlhood and Records of Later Life look back on her growth and experiences from a personal perspective, written with candour and rich detail. She also left a collection of verse, Poems, showing her literary attempts beyond diary and memoir. Public information is limited, so biographical details are difficult to set out, but her surviving works show a gift for first-person documentary writing that captures the spirit of her era in fluent, natural prose, providing vivid primary material for the study of nineteenth-century British and American society.