Directions: Use the themes, questions and video clips below to teach and learn with portions of C-SPAN's American Writers program featuring Mary Chesnut and A Diary from Dixie. Link to the complete video clip list to identify clip descriptions and create your own lessons. Each theme contains questions and video clips appropriate for varying grade levels. Lesson Credit:
Curriculum Advisory Team member, Pat Perry.

1. During the Civil War, what type of writing did Mary Chesnut undertake? From what vantage point did she write? What were her biases?
2. Describe her writing style. What was unique about her style compared to other accounts of the Civil War? Give examples of her style.
3. What motivated Mary Chesnut to write? What challenges did she face? Identify all of the tools that were necessary for Mary Chesnut to write. What physical, social and economic conditions allowed her to write?
4. Is Mary Chesnut’s diary a primary source? Is her published book, A Diary from Dixie, a primary source? Explain your answer. What value do Mary Chesnut’s observations have in a study of the Civil War? Into what topics specifically does she offer insight?
5. What concerns did Mary Chesnut have about publishing her work? Do her concerns surprise you? How much of Mary Chesnut’s writing and editing process would be comparable to what a diarist or author would experience today? To what degree do you identify with Mary Chesnut’s experiences as a writer?

1. How were the North and the South different? How were they similar? Consider geography, economics, demographics, culture and politics.
2. What was “nullification”? Did it lead to the Civil War?
3. What position did the South take in the U.S. Civil War? What were some of the reasons for their engagement in the war?
4. What was South Carolina’s unique role at the start of the Civil War? What is secession? What steps did the government take to secede? Compare South Carolina’s secession to the U.S. colonial Declaration of Independence.
5. What was the Southern view of Abraham Lincoln? From what point of view was Mary Chesnut critiquing Lincoln? What conditions caused her to view him this way? Are her opinions about Lincoln legitimate? Explain.
6. Consider the political conditions under which Mary Chesnut was writing her diary. How did Mary Chesnut contribute to the Southern cause during the Civil War?

1. Describe the status of women in Mary Chesnut’s society. What behavior, activity, beliefs and values were encouraged for or ascribed to women?
2. How does Mary Chesnut perceive herself? Does she accept or reject her status as a woman? What traditional women’s roles did she embrace? Which did she reject?
3. How did her relationships with her husband and his family affect her status as a woman? How did those around her respond to her outspokenness?
4. Compare the way Mary Chesnut participated in the war to the way her husband did. What role did she take after the war?
5. Compare Mary Chesnut’s status to that of slaves in the South. How did Mary Chesnut compare her status to that of slaves? Is this an appropriate comparison? To what degree did her experience as a woman allow her to empathize with that of enslaved people?
6. What lessons can Mary Chesnut offer to women today? What conditions are required to allow women to exercise their full rights as citizens?