Recounts how a frightened and war-weary household dealt with privations during the blockade imposed on the South by the federal navy Parthenia Hague experienced the Civil War while employed as a schoolteacher on a plantation near Eufaula, Alabama. This book recounts how a frightened and war-weary household dealt with privations during the blockade imposed on the South by the federal navy. The memoir of Parthenia Hague is a detailed look at the ingenious industry and self-sufficiency employed by anxious citizens as the northern army closed in.
Introduction to the Bison Book EditionBeginnings of the Secession Movement — A Negro WeddingDevices Rendered Necessary by the Blockade — How the South Met a Great EmergencyWar-time Scenes on an Alabama Plantation — Southern Women—Their Ingenuity and CourageHow Cloth Was Dyed — How Shoes, Thread, Hats, and Bonnets Were ManufacturedHomespun Dresses — Home - Made Buttons and Pasteboard — Uncle BenAunt Phillis and Her Domestic Trials — Knitting Around the Fireside — Tramp, Tramp of the SpinnersWeaving Heavy Cloth — Expensive Prints — “ Blood Will Tell ”Substitutes for Coffee — Raspberry-leaf Tea — Home-made Starch, Putty, and Cement — Spinning BeesOld-time Hoopskirts — How the Slaves Lived — Their BarbecuesPainful Realities of Civil Strife — Straitened Condition of the South — Treatment of PrisonersHomespun Weddings — A Pathetic Incident — Approach of the Northern. ArmyPillage and Plunder — “Papa's Fine Stock ” — The South Overrun by SoldiersReturn of the Vanquished — Poverty of the ConfederatesRepairing Damages — A Mother Made Happy — Conclusion
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese is Eleonore Raoul Professor of Humanities at Emory University and author of a number of volumes, including Within the Plantation Household; Black and White Women of the Old South.
“Exceptional in its documentation of hardships and substitutions in Alabama during the war years. Provides insight on everything from feather fans to spinning and weaving; recommended by Jefferson Davis.” —Victoria R. Rumble
