The later diaries of Eliza Frances Andrews, an upper-class Southern woman whose earlier diaries have already been published as The Wartime Journal of a Georgia Girl: 1864-1865. Covering the period 1870-1872, the diaries cover her trip to New Jersey to visit Northern relatives and the beginnings of her first novel, ending with her mother's death. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Stories with a Moral is the first comprehensive study of the effects of plantation society on literature and the influences of literature on social practices in nineteenth-century Georgia. During the years of frontier settlement, the Civil War, and Reconstruction, Georgia authors voiced their support for the slave system, the planter class, and the ideals of the Confederacy, presenting a humorous, passionate, and at times tragic view of a rapidly changing world. Michael E. Price examines works of fiction, travel accounts, diaries, and personal letters in this thorough survey of King Cotton's literary influence, showing how Georgia authors romanticized agrarian themes to present an appealing image of plantation economy and social structure. Stories with a Moral focuses on the importance of literature as a mode of ideological communication. Even more significant, the book shows how the writing of one century shaped the development of social practices and beliefs that persist, in legend and memory, to this day.