The Secret Eye: The Journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889

by Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, Nell Irvin Painter (Introduction), Virginia I. Burr (Editor)

Overview

The journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, spanning the years from 1848 to 1889, is rare for its treatment of both the Civil War and postbellum years and for its candor and detail in treating these eras. Thomas, who was born to wealth and privilege and reared in the tradition of the southern belle, tells of the hard days of war and the poverty brought on by emancipation and Reconstruction. Her entries illuminate experiences shared with thousands of other southern women.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469620794
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	03/19/2014
Series:	Gender and American Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	494
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Virginia Ingraham Burr, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, who now lives in Salem, South Carolina, spent ten years preparing Thomas’s journal for publication. Nell Irvin Painter is professor of history at Princeton University.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A rare, continuous picture of one privileged slaveholding woman’s response to the crumbling of her world in the trauma of war and its aftermath. This dramatic and moving personal story offers an important perspective on the death of the Old South and the birth of the New.” — Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, author of Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South

Editorial Reviews

“An involving and intriguing addition to the personal histories of the period . . . told by a privileged woman who gathered strength and independence from disaster.” — Kirkus Reviews

“In this fascinating abridged journal, a Southern belle shows that the events portrayed in Gone with the Wind were much less romantic in real life.” — Publishers Weekly

“Few diaries by Southern women are as rich as Thomas’s account. . . . This is a real Scarlett O'Hara, with grit.” — Library Journal

“The readability, the sustained interest of this diary, with its keen observations and full detail and its continuing concern with social justice, offers an unusually rich insight into a crucial period of social change.” — ###Maryland Historical Magazine

From the Publisher