A Girl's Life in Virginia Before the War

by Letitia M. Burwell

This book contains an engrossing eyewitness account of antebellum plantation life as it really was. The author, whose family had been in Virginia for over a century, offers a lively description of the relations between master and slave in response to the falsehoods published in the North before, during, and after the War concerning the treatment of slaves in the South.

Genres: History, Biography

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1895

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading memoirs written about the Civil War era, you get a real feeling what people thought about their world and the events that they witnessed.

"A Girl's Life in Virginia Before the War" by Letitia M. Burwell was first published in 1895 when the Lost Cause and Moonlight and Magnolias myth was becoming firmly established in American culture. Following the end of the war the market was overwhelmed by books and regimental histories written by Union veterans which firmly established the Union narrative and celebrated the deeds of President Lincoln, and the Union generals such as Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan. Also being produced were memoirs written by black soldiers and former slaves who detailed the horrors of slavery. By 1876 the mood of the nation began to change, with the end of Reconstruction, the rise of Jim Crowe in the South, and a devastating financial depression many in the North began to express weariness with the constant reminders of the horrors of the war and the evils of slavery.

Into this void Southern authors began to produce a new genre of literature that promoted the Southern way of life. War veterans penned narratives extolling the virtues of Confederate leaders such as Lee and the bravery of the gallant Southern solider as he battled against the evil Yankees whose mercenary (Irish, German, black) soldiers laid waste to the Southern fields and cities. Southern women writers also contributed their voice and penned nostalgic memoirs about life on the plantation, such as Burwell's offering.

In the opening Letitia Burwell makes it quite clear that she is writing this book so that her nieces will not be ashamed by their slave holding ancestors. Burwell's fears that her nieces are being poisoned by wicked Yankee authors who are once again plotting against the South by writing, in Burwell's worldview, exaggerated stories about the evils of slavery. What the reader gets is a fascinating view of Southern culture from a very sheltered and pampered Southern belle. Her views on the benefits of slavery and plantation life is fascinating--though in our modern eyes highly offensive. Many readers will be offended by her use of slave dialect and how she presented slaves as nothing more than adult sized children, but it sheds light on how many 19th Southerners (male and female) viewed African Americans and the institution of slavery.

Another fascinating aspect of Letitia Burwell's memoir is her depiction of Virginia plantation culture on the eve of the Civil War. Burwell was born into an elite and old Virginia family and her memoir reads like a Who's Who of Virginia plantation society. For all its grandeur, luxury, and romance this was a society that was already several generations past its glory days. In fact, Burwell's elders were more concerned about the achievements of their ancestors and how things had been better back in the day, then with the pressing needs of the future. This was a society that was on the verge of collapse with practically everyone burying their heads in the sand while clinging desperately onto their slaves. This house of cards was already on the verge of destruction when the Civil War came to knock it over. Ironically, Letitia Burwell ends up like her grandmother who gathered the youngsters around her and extolled the virtues of the past and decried the advancements of the modern age.

"A Girl's Life in Virginia Before the War" is a fascinating time capsule and an excellent example of the growing literary genre that would eventually produce the works of Thomas Dixon, Jr. and "Gone With the Wind."

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

✔️Published in 1895.
🖊 My review: This is a delightful memoire to read. I enjoyed it immensely, and the illustrations are apropos to the book. 🗝 What I learned is that primary sources such as this work is key to understanding life in the antebellum South. 💫 What I like best is the straightforwardness. 📌 Would I read this again? Yes, of course. The dedication is thus:

Dedicated to my nieces, who will find in English and American publications such expressions applied to their ancestors as: "cruel slave-owners"; "inhuman wretches"; "southern taskmasters"; "dealers in human souls," etc. From these they will naturally recoil with horror. My own life would have been embittered had I believed myself to be descended from such monsters; and that those who come after us may know the truth, I wish to leave a record of plantation life as it was. The truth may thus be preserved among a few, and merited praise may be awarded to noble men and virtuous women who have passed away.

🤔 My rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
🟢 Media form: Project Gutenberg .
🔲 Excerpts :

🔸 That my birthplace should have been a Virginia plantation, my lot in life cast on a Virginia plantation, my ancestors, for nine generations, owners of Virginia plantations, remain facts mysterious and inexplicable but to Him who determined the bounds of our habitations, and said: "Be still, and know that I am God."
Confined exclusively to a Virginia plantation during my earliest childhood, I believed the world one vast plantation bounded by negro quarters. Rows of white cabins with gardens attached; negro men in the fields; negro women sewing, knitting, spinning, weaving, housekeeping in the cabins; with negro children dancing, romping, singing, jumping, playing around the 2doors,—these formed the only pictures familiar to my childhood.
The master's residence—as the negroes called it, "the great house"—occupied a central position and was handsome and attractive, the overseer's being a plainer house about a mile from this.
Each cabin had as much pine furniture as the occupants desired, pine and oak being abundant, and carpenters always at work for the comfort of the plantation.
Bread, meat, milk, vegetables, fruit, and fuel were as plentiful as water in the springs near the cabin doors.
Among the negroes—one hundred—on our plantation, many had been taught different trades; and there were blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, millers, shoemakers, weavers, spinners, all working for themselves. No article of their handicraft ever being sold from the place, their industry resulted in nothing beyond feeding and clothing themselves.

🔸 Although there were already many old 13negroes to be supported, who no longer considered themselves young enough to work, this old man was added to the number, and a cabin built for him. To the day of his death he expressed gratitude to my mother for taking care of him, and often entertained us with accounts of his "old marster times," which he said were the "grandes' of all."

🔸 The extent of these estates precluding the possibility of near neighbors, their isolation would have been intolerable but for the custom of visiting which prevailed among us. Many houses were filled with visitors the greater part of the year, and these usually remained two or three weeks. Visiting tours were made in our private carriages, each family making at least one such tour a year. Nor was it necessary to announce these visits by message or letter, each house being considered always ready, and "entertaining company" being the occupation of the people. Sometimes two or three carriages might be descried in the evening coming up to the door through the Lombardy poplar avenue,—the usual approach to many old houses; whereupon ensued a lively flutter among small servants, who, becoming generally excited, speedily got them into their clean aprons, and ran to open gates and to 32remove parcels from carriages. Lady visitors were always accompanied by colored maids, although sure of finding a superfluity of these at each establishment. The mistress of the house always received her guests in the front porch, with a sincere and cordial greeting.

🔸 When I reflect upon the degree of comfort arrived at in our homes, I think we should have felt grateful to our ancestors; for, as Quincy has written: "In whatever mode of existence man finds himself, be it 44savage or civilized, he perceives that he is indebted for the greater part of his possessions to events over which he had no control; to individuals whose names, perhaps, never reached his ear; to sacrifices which he never shared. How few of all these blessings do we owe to our own power or prudence! How few on which we cannot discern the impress of a long past generation!" So we were indebted for our agreeable surroundings to the heroism and sacrifices of past generations, which not to venerate and eulogize betrays the want of a truly noble soul. For what courage, what patience, what perseverance, what long suffering, what Christian forbearance, must it have cost our great-grandmothers to civilize, Christianize, and elevate the naked, savage Africans to the condition of good cooks and respectable maids!

🔸 At every steep hill or bad place in the road it was an established custom to stop the carriage, unfold the high steps, and "let us out,"—as in pictures of the animals coming down out of the ark! This custom had always prevailed in my mother's family, and there was a tradition that my great-grandfather's horses, being habituated to stop for this purpose, refused to pull up certain hills, even when the carriage was empty, until 68the driver had dismounted and slammed the door, after which they moved off without further hesitation.

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[Linda Fausnet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am the process of writing a paranormal romance involving ghosts in Gettysburg, and this book was very helpful for research purposes as one of my characters is a former slave. This book provides excellent insight into Southern thinking back in the 1860s. It's interesting to see how many whites truly thought it was their religious duty to educate and civilize black people. They really thought they were doing the right thing and at times felt burdened with their "task". This book is definitely worth the read, but of course you need to view it in it's historical context. It's incredible to see how these slave owners truly viewed themselves as noble. There are lots of head shaking moments when you ask yourself - what is the matter with these people?

[Lamandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading about the culture and lifestyle of the time was engrossing, and the chapter about the author’s acquaintance with RE Lee and discussion of his time at W&L was an unexpected pleasure. Her comments about the slave-owner relationship was often problematic, however, and made the book at times hard to read.