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Anna: The Letters of a St. Simons Island Plantation Mistress, 1817-1859
As the wife of a frequently absent slaveholder and public figure, Anna Matilda Page King (1798-1859) was the de facto head of their Sea Island plantation. This volume collects more than 150 letters to her husband, children, parents, and others. Conveying the substance of everyday life as they chronicle King's ongoing struggles to put food on the table, nurse her "family black and white," and keep faith with a disappointing husband, the letters offer an absorbing firsthand account of antebellum coastal Georgia life.
Anna Matilda Page was reared with the expectation that she would marry a planter, have children, and tend to her family's domestic affairs. Untypically, she was also schooled by her father in all aspects of plantation management, from seed cultivation to building construction. That grounding would serve her well. By 1842 her husband's properties were seized, owing to debts amassed from crop failures, economic downturns, and extensive investments in land, enslaved workers, and the development of the nearby port town of Brunswick. Anna and her family were sustained, however, by Retreat, the St. Simons Island property left to her in trust by her father. With the labor of fifty bondpeople and "their increase" she was to strive, with little aid from her husband, to keep the plantation solvent.
A valuable record of King's many roles, from accountant to mother, from doctor to horticulturist, the letters also reveal much about her relationship with, and attitudes toward, her enslaved workers. Historians have yet to fully understand the lives of plantation mistresses left on their own by husbands pursuing political and other professional careers. Anna Matilda Page King's letters give us insight into one such woman who reluctantly entered, but nonetheless excelled in, the male domains of business and agriculture.
Anna Matilda Page was reared with the expectation that she would marry a planter, have children, and tend to her family's domestic affairs. Untypically, she was also schooled by her father in all aspects of plantation management, from seed cultivation to building construction. That grounding would serve her well. By 1842 her husband's properties were seized, owing to debts amassed from crop failures, economic downturns, and extensive investments in land, enslaved workers, and the development of the nearby port town of Brunswick. Anna and her family were sustained, however, by Retreat, the St. Simons Island property left to her in trust by her father. With the labor of fifty bondpeople and "their increase" she was to strive, with little aid from her husband, to keep the plantation solvent.
A valuable record of King's many roles, from accountant to mother, from doctor to horticulturist, the letters also reveal much about her relationship with, and attitudes toward, her enslaved workers. Historians have yet to fully understand the lives of plantation mistresses left on their own by husbands pursuing political and other professional careers. Anna Matilda Page King's letters give us insight into one such woman who reluctantly entered, but nonetheless excelled in, the male domains of business and agriculture.
492 pages, Hardcover
First published October 30, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 24, 2014
I read this book as background research for my 2015 novel which is set on St Simons Island, one of Georgia's "golden isles." Anna Page King's letters to her absent husband, her children, friends and family provide a fascinating window into the world of King's Retreat, the St Simons cotton plantation she inherited from her father. She writes of her worries about providing money to educate her ten children, describes social events on the island ( with a bit of sometimes not so nice gossip!) and frets about damage to her extensive gardens which were once considered the most extensive in the state. Apart from ornamental plants, Anna had lemon trees, an olive grove, and a rose garden that included specimens from around the world. It was said that her gardens were so fragrant sailors approaching King's Retreat could smell the flowers before reaching land.
The editor of Anna's letters, Mealnie Pavich-Lindsay included a wealth of information about the more than 300 slaves who worked at Retreat, and about the descendants of Anna Page King, which made interesting reading in itself. My only quibble is that after a while, many of Anna's letters began to sound the same. Her husband was absent from her for years at a time, and many of the letters included in this collection contain Anna's pleas for him to take care of himself and come home. Otherwise, this book was not only entertaining, but very helpful in fleshing out my descriptions of St Simons as it was in the 19th century. I love reading first-hand accounts of women's lives in the 19th century. If you do, too I think you will enjoy this book.
The editor of Anna's letters, Mealnie Pavich-Lindsay included a wealth of information about the more than 300 slaves who worked at Retreat, and about the descendants of Anna Page King, which made interesting reading in itself. My only quibble is that after a while, many of Anna's letters began to sound the same. Her husband was absent from her for years at a time, and many of the letters included in this collection contain Anna's pleas for him to take care of himself and come home. Otherwise, this book was not only entertaining, but very helpful in fleshing out my descriptions of St Simons as it was in the 19th century. I love reading first-hand accounts of women's lives in the 19th century. If you do, too I think you will enjoy this book.
October 11, 2016
In this review it becomes necessary to draw a slight distinction between the letters and their footnotes, which are rendered with remarkable skill and clarity, and the introduction and the conclusion, which are clumsy and biased.
Melanie Pavich-Lindsay has done a wonderful job selecting letters from the extensive corpus of those written by Anna M. King, and the footnotes for these letters are informative and useful. The conclusions Pavich-Lindsay seeks to derive from these letters, however, constitute brash editorializing at its best and gross mischaracterization at worst. Pavich-Lindsay consistently draws conclusions about race relations, in particular, which find no grounding in the letters themselves; this discrepancy was likely caused by an over-reliance on secondary materials when writing the aforementioned sections.
Overall, however, the work is a great success and presents a holistic and engaging depiction of plantation life for an upper class antebellum woman. King's writings are an essential and often overlooked component to understanding the Old South and whatever her faults as a historian Pavich-Lindsay is to be commented for bringing King's letters to the public.
I recommend this book for anyone interested in the Old South, the history of Georgia, black history, or historical American women.
Melanie Pavich-Lindsay has done a wonderful job selecting letters from the extensive corpus of those written by Anna M. King, and the footnotes for these letters are informative and useful. The conclusions Pavich-Lindsay seeks to derive from these letters, however, constitute brash editorializing at its best and gross mischaracterization at worst. Pavich-Lindsay consistently draws conclusions about race relations, in particular, which find no grounding in the letters themselves; this discrepancy was likely caused by an over-reliance on secondary materials when writing the aforementioned sections.
Overall, however, the work is a great success and presents a holistic and engaging depiction of plantation life for an upper class antebellum woman. King's writings are an essential and often overlooked component to understanding the Old South and whatever her faults as a historian Pavich-Lindsay is to be commented for bringing King's letters to the public.
I recommend this book for anyone interested in the Old South, the history of Georgia, black history, or historical American women.
November 28, 2007
Anna Matilda Page King was a remarkable woman, and though this isn't strictly a biography, you get an excellent sense of who she was based on the letters she writes to her friends and family. She was prolific and efficient, and ran her plantation, Retreat, often on her own while her husband was away dealing with politics. Very well edited and presented.
November 3, 2013
A fascinating read about the history of St. Simon's Island.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews