The Hammonds of Redcliffe [Paperback]

Carol Bleser (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 11, 1987 | ISBN-10: 0195049845 | ISBN-13: 978-0195049848

Drawing on four generations of family correspondence --reflecting the hopes, fears, desires, frustrations, and failures of an American family touched by personal scandal-- this book presents the saga of the Hammonds of Redcliffe from before the Civil War to after the New Deal. Set in Redcliffe, the plantation home of the Hammonds, this sweeping collection of letters, many of them by women, recaptures a way of life that is gone forever as it provides fascinating insights into the reactions of the participants to disaster on the battlefield and on the homefront and into the agony of an eminent plantation family that had to adjust as best it could to a new social order. More than just the story of one family, the book casts in high relief the whole fabric of society: how all people worked and wept, married and mourned, lived and died.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Bleser] adds much to [the letters'] intelligibility with her introductions to successive generations and by her brisk rattling of skeletons from family closets."--C. Vann Woodward, New York Review of Books

"Social history that reads like a novel."--Jean Strouse, Newsweek

"Surpasses any other such collection of American correspondence that I have ever read."--Louis D. Rubin, Jr., The New Republic

"A remarkable collection of family letters....One can sense the broader implications of this particular family's history for anyone interested in the social history of women and of the South."--The New York Times Book Review.

"Bleser has skillfully edited the Hammond letters, provided excellent introductory essays for each section, and compiled an extensive bibliography and genealogical record. The Hammonds of Redcliffe is a wonderful walk through the private lifes of a very prominent Southern family. The book would be invaluable in a seminar on Southern family or social history because it is much more than a collection of letters. It is family history at its finest."--Teaching History

About the Author

Carol Bleser, Professor of History, Clemson University, South Carolina.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 11, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195049845
• ISBN-13: 978-0195049848
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,668,598 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars real people, real emotions and some scandal, July 22, 2009

By 

Fiona - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hammonds of Redcliffe (Paperback)

If you don't trust those who feel compelled to rewrite American history and apologize for it...then read this book. For those who think men incapable of expressing deep emotions, read this book. If you want to learn about a selfish, self-deluded family patriarch read this book. If you want to become so attached to some of the Hammond family members that you long to discover a trunk full of letters in a southern attic, read this book, for there is another book about this family which will satisfy you. Because you will want to know more and will feel almost lonely when you finish "the hammonds of redcliffe". And the home was preserved by the efforts of a descendant, and that will satisfy you as well.

Amidst the turbulent era (turbulent to us, not to those who were living it-- until the civil war, for we of course, know what was coming. and we, are still living with the aftermath),so...what were people Thinking, were they falling in love and writing sweet and yearning love letters?...yes, read some. Was there a son who longed for his fathers approval and never got it? Did this same father make excuses for "fooling around" with the very young daughters of a famous American General, and then blame his behavior on them? Read pages of his excuses. It is all fascinating, real and more a part of our country's history than a trip to Williamsburg, for it deals with what goes on in people's mind and hearts...and that is always what proceeds behavior, which invents history and makes it more memorable for those who want to understand history.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating family history, February 23, 2006

By 

SusieQ (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hammonds of Redcliffe (Paperback)

The true history of a Southern slaveholding family, pre- and post-Civil War, the heirs of the famous "Cotton is King" U.S.Senator, James Henry Hammond, which is told through their own letters, and the excellent interpretations of Carol Bleser.

The word, "slaveholding" may give you a shudder, but this family had its share of troubles and sorrows. On a different scale than their former slaves, of course, but troubles nonetheless. And then there are happy occasions-the births, marriages...it's life, good times and bad, through one of the most tumultuous times in American history. My only quibble is that I want to know even more, in depth, about all of these people - the letters and Ms. Bleser's essays were a great start, now I want even more!

Highly recommended.