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Born: March 31, 1823 - Pleasant Hill, South Carolina
Died: Nov. 22, 1886 - Camden, South Carolina
| Excerpt from A Diary from Dixie |
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harleston, S.C., November 8, 1860.-Yesterday on the train, just before we reached Fernandina, a woman called out: "That settles the hash."
Tanny touched me on the shoulder and said: "Lincoln's elected."
"How do you know?"
"The man over there has a telegram."
The excitement was very great. Everybody was talking at the same time. One, a little more moved than the others, stood up and said despondently: "The die is cast; stake is life or death." "Did you ever!" was the prevailing exclamation, and some one cried out: "Now that the black radical Republicans have the power I suppose they will Brown us all." No doubt of it.
I have always kept a journal after a fashion of my own, with dates and a line of poetry or prose, mere quotations, which I understood and no one else, and I have kept letters and extracts from the papers. From to-day forward I will tell the story in my own way.
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Teaching Topics in Social Studies
Mary Chesnut's life and work offer a unique insight: that of a FEMINIST and ABOLITIONIST living in the SOUTH during
the Civil War. Her book offers a PRIMARY SOURCE for studying WOMEN'S HISTORY and analyzing the ways CULTURAL, SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS can affect individuals. Her family and the society propogated SLAVERY; she was exposed to the POLITICS at the heart of the CIVIL WAR and RECONSTRUCTION and she lived in varying ECONOMIC CONDITIONS.
Teaching Topics in Language Arts
Mary Chesnut kept a DIARY throughout the Civil War, noting her observations on events of both a personal
| Scavenger Hunt |
| By what name is A Diary from Dixie published under today?
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and political, regional and national nature. She EDITED her diary for PUBLICATION. It is likely that the editing process and style of the diary were impacted by the fact that she was, at the same time, drafting AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL and HISTORICAL NOVELS.
| Facts About Mary Chestnut |
- Both Mary Chesnut's father and her husband were U.S. Senators.
- Mary Chesnut taught a slave to read when she was young; it was a crime to do so in ante-bellum South Carolina.
- Between 1881 and 1884, Mary Chesnut condensed her diary from 400,000 words to 150,000 words into a book for publication.
- In 1905 the book was published under a name it acquired when first excerpted in the Saturday Evening Post, A Diary from Dixie.
- Mary Chesnut never liked the term Dixie.
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