MEMORIALS OF A SOUTHERN PLANTER

by Susan Dabney Smedes ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 17, 1965

First published in 1887 with a final edition in 1914, this memorial to a beloved father which served as a vehicle to defend the way of the ""misunderstood"" plantation owner has value now mainly as an in situ expression, of doctrinaire sectionalism. Thomas Dabney, Mrs. Smedes' father, a Virginian transplanted to Mississippi in 1835, was hardly an original thinker, as his mannered, pedestrian letters to his family will attest; but as a plantation owner and manager, a man of some substance, he was quick to take a position in the matter of national politics at a time when sectional issues ran high. A firm Whig, opposed to the centralized excesses of the Democrats, after the Civil War he grudgingly embraced the Democratic Party, becoming a party leader in his district. Much of the material concerns the treatment of the slaves, for this was the issue that rankled Mrs. Smedes. Firm statements as to the humanity and goodness of Colonel Dabney as a master, laudatory statements in a rambling dialect purporting to be gleaned from Dabney slaves, and anecdote upon anecdote plead the need to be understood and perhaps forgiven, but the bland, bloodless style of Mrs.Smedes buzzes with the whir of grinding axes, and it-must have been difficult to appear convinced even in 1887.

Pub Date: May 17, 1965

ISBN: 0548182698

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1965

Categories: NONFICTION