Customer Reviews

Mary's World : Love, War, and Family Ties in Nineteenth-century Charleston

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

_Mary's World_ traces the life story of Mary Motte Alston Pringle, a prominent South Carolinian woman, from her youth in the early 1800s to her passing at an advanced age. Much of the story is drawn from her own writings, which are voluminous and articulate, though Côté steers clear of the trap of overquoting and invests the effort to interpret and present--just as an historian should.

Most authors would be delighted to succeed in one significant way with a book--Côté succeeds in many with _Mary's_. It is dispassionate history, navigating the shoals of one of the most partisan events in US history (the Civil War) without demonizing or deifying either side. It is 'herstory', if you will, giving us a view of times past from the standpoint of a courageous woman who went from genteel wealth to genteel poverty. It is also African American history: the blacks who played integral roles in Mary's world have names, faces and attitudes, which naturally changed with society. It asks and answers deeper questions about the protagonists' motivations, ideas, beliefs and viewpoints. It makes abundantly clear that Reconstruction was an equal opportunity failure, destroying rather than redistributing wealth. Côté's style is uncluttered, perceptive and engaging. It plays no favourites and panders to no one. The notes often explain contemporary slang and add value to the main text; the index is very helpful; the bibliography is impressive.

Strongly recommended as 19th-century US history, Southern history, Civil War history, women's history and/or black history. It would be of particular value for the high school or college student of US history writing an essay or looking for inspiration for one, and I look forward to more work of this calibre from the author.

Apart from the reading plaesure "Mary's World" provides, I immensly enjoyed this book for the following reasons: foreign history, in this case the American Civil War history, can be daunting for outsiders. Mary's World eases the foreigner not only into the life of the Pringle family but also into history of southern plantation life years prior to the war. This circumstance greatly facilitates the amateur's understanding of the time leading up to the war and the war itself. What I particularly appreciated was the southern view of that history. Even in Switzerland we are familiar with the northern issues of industrialism vs. agriculture (prominent geographically in Europe at that time also), the slavery issue etc. Rarely do we hear about the life and thoughts of Southerners other than the great military men. The history of Mary Pringle written by Richard Cote transports you into a Charleston household in two seconds flat. It is all so lively and easy to imagine that it is hard to put down the book. I felt I knew Mary Pringle and her children! And I felt I had never learned more about the South.

I just finished reading Mary's World last night at 2:00 A.M. I couldn't put it down. I had long searched for a book that told about the actual lives of an Antebellum family. I had bought it while in Charleston, and it was my best book buy of the year!

Many other books I have read about the same topic have been good, yet they are explained as mere facts. Mary's World was indeed portrayed as if it were fiction, yet it was a true and researched account of Mary's World, an amazing glimpse into a bygone era. It was well written and very enjoyable. If I could get my hands on more books of this type, I would certainly do so. There are many books about the Old South, but none that I know of that allow such a close and personal look and feel into the real lives of those persons having lived in the years leading to, during, and after the Civil War.

There is an amazing national interest in Antebellum life told through the "voices" of those having lived during these actual times - and Cote has done a great job of sharing the true stories and lives of the Alston, Pringle, Frost, Middleton, and many other families/persons in this wonderful book.

I have studied old southern families for years, and I know a great deal about several families from Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans. The real life stories about which Cote writes in Mary's World are so fascinating that anyone reading the book will fall in love with Mary Pringle and Old Charleston.

Mr. Cote, thanks again for a most wonderful book, and please keep similar books coming.

By the way, for those of you whom read and loved Mary's World, Cote's next book about Mary Pringle's sister-in-law, Theodosia Burr Alston will be out soon.

Before "Mary's World" I had not been privileged to read a meticulously-researched, scholarly work that moved along like a novel. When I was forced to put it down from time to time, it took me quite awhile to re-enter my own world, so caught up was I in a time so different from the present that I find myself, while reading, totally captivated.

Mary Motte Alston Pringle may have been the last of the legendary Southern Women. Truly born to the manor and accustomed to every luxury as a young woman, she rose to challenges during and after the Civil War that would have destroyed a lesser human being. The letters that she wrote just after the war to her adult children who were scattered from California to Europe would have left me in despair if they had not held such a powerful message about the durability of the human spirit.

She had no money, her beloved family home was occupied by Union soldiers and she was separated from many whom she loved, yet there is such courage in these letters that the book left me filled with inspiration. Men and women today can find much to admire and emulate in this indestructible family. "Mary's World" has a permanent place on my bookshelf and in my heart.

FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN ANTEBELLUM CULTURE AND THE CIVIL WAR, THIS IS A MUST READ. EVEN FOR THOSE WHO AREN'T A STUDENT OF THE ERA, "MARY'S WORLD" IS STILL A FASCINATING GLIMPSE OF THE LIFE OF AN ELITE SOUTHERN PLANTER FAMILY. TAKEN FROM FAMILY PAPERS, THE STORY OF THE PRINGLES IS A FIRST HAND ACCOUNT OF THEIR INNERMOST THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS.

THE READER GETS TO WATCH WILLIAM BULL AND MARY ALSTON PRINGLE'S CHILDREN GROW UP. BY THE END OF THE BOOK YOU FEEL AS IF YOU HAVE KNOWN THEM ALL. I DREADED FINISHING THE BOOK BECAUSE I FELT AS IF I WAS LEAVING OLD FRIENDS.

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND MAKE TIME FOR THIS BOOK. REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU ARE AN "ANTEBELLUM-OPHILE" LIKE ME OR NOT, THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK.

I found this book in Charleston on vacation after touring this home. I loved this book! Now I want to visit again because I am so much more invested. I read this book for pure pleasure, and di it deliver! One doesn't need to visit the south to enjoy, the book takes you there. It gives such insight to the era and history the reader gets pulled right in.

Mary's World is a powerful book which gives readers clear insights into how Mary Motte Alston Pringle, her family, and slaves thought and lived in South Carolina before, during, and after the Civil War. Because Mary and her husband William were descendents of successful rice planters and continued the tradition until after the war, Mary and her family are good representatives of the planter elite during this period. The Pringles left behind a large body of papers, enabling Côté to conduct a thorough study of a high-born planter family's attitudes towards society, slavery, education, and family values in nineteenth century South Carolina. The Pringles experienced enormous prosperity before the war. Through their correspondences and documents, the reader can glimpse into the past to witness the personal tragedy, financial calamity, and utter desperation this family endured when they were stripped of their livelihood, and their young sons and daughters fell prey to war and disease. Readers may well be astonished at how Mary and her family braved these continuing catastrophes in a time period which has become so romanticized over the years. Côté's research and writing also reveals the racial inequities and insecurities during antebellum plantation life. Especially poignant was the disillusionment some slaves were left with after emancipation, with no place to go and no way to make a living. Charleston, once a thriving, prosperous city, was reduced to ruins after the war. Formerly wealthy landowners were left without homes, plantations were abandoned, their tools broken or worn out, and blacks and whites alike struggled to eke out some form of living. Mary's World carefully traces the complex lives of a prominent Southern family and their slaves from antebellum prosperity to the beginning of a new economic and social era that would shape Southern life for the next century. I loved it.

The Civil War that this Country suffered through is probably one of the more heavily documented periods in our History, and by extension the topic of many books. I believe this book is quite unique, and by its nature will be of interest to a much wider group of readers than many other books on this period of History.

I have read several works on the Civil War, however I claim no extraordinary knowledge. My reading has generally been confined to the memoirs of the more notable participants, and on the events that lead to the conflict, the carnage that ensued, and the remnants that many would argue still echo to the present.

This is not a book based on the life of a soldier, rather a woman who had 13 children some who were sons, and several that were lost to the war. This book is not about battles, but the results and the damage they caused on a human/familial scale, not a North versus South scale. The view is not completely without bias for these are the papers of a woman of The South, a Plantation Owner's Wife, and a woman who literally lived at the flashpoint for the war. Despite these facts, this was a woman who was well educated, thoughtful, and held ideas that would appear to be in opposition to what a reader would expect.

This woman had children fighting in the war, located in The North during the war, in San Francisco, and in Europe during the war. Nothing usual about this woman, whether one considers the Family she produced, the diversity of personalities they became, or how she coped with them all while sitting atop the peak of society, and then traveling to its absolute opposite in the wake of the war.

This book may appear daunting from its size, but this is not the case. The book is happily filled with an unusual number of photographs that are placed in context, not isolated in the midst of the book, forcing the reader to copy and paste their memories and pictures to the relevant passage. The book is also filled with excellent source notes befitting a work of scholarly writing.

The war is a critical part of this book, but it is a part. The economics of rice growing and the methods of cultivation are explained, and I found it fascinating. The daily life well before, and well after the war is also explained and experienced. This is not a snapshot of a Family over the period of a war. This is the biography of a Family that stretches across the centuries until the Author brings you to the home on the cover that stands to this day.

The material that is the basis for this book is first hand source material. This is not hundreds of pages of editorial from the Author's point of view. The records certainly must be viewed through the eyes of those who they were written by, but as I said, they often surprise.

Mr. Cote has created a memorable work; he has produced a biography that can be applied to so many categories. This book is Mary's story, the story of her family that came before, and followed her. This is the story of a way of life, the events that lead to the deadliest war this Nation has ever fought.

This is a Biography of a part of our History, perhaps not of our entire Nation's, but certainly one of the most critical and perilous times our Nation ever faced. An extraordinary, and scholarly work that is not only a monument to the time that was spent creating it, but to the Author who gave his time to bring it to all of us.

Unconditionally Recommended!

In Mary's World Richard N. Cote has succeeded admirably where so many others have tried and yet missed the mark. With his succinct style and exceptional organizational skills he has laid bare the thoughts,emotions and lives of Mary Pringle, her family and their slaves, and done so in a way that has given us a book

that is informative as well as enjoyable. By putting their lives

into context with the times Mr Cote has given the reader not only the opportunity to learn what they thought and felt but the ability to understand why they thought and felt the way they

did. This book will appeal to historians and the average reader

alike.

It took me only 2 days to read Mary's World and I found myself

so absorbed that when interrupted I was momentarily confused to find I wasn't in 19th century Charleston.

MARY'S WORLD is an incredible look at the two decades prior to, the Civil War itself, and the subsequent aftermath. Archivist-writer Richard N. Cote evaluated and categorized over 2500 handwritten pages of entries and journals written by Southern aristocrat Mary Motte Alston Pringle. In her own words, we learn much about antebellum South plantation life, especially the owner-family and the manor house slaves. Even more to the point, is the effect of the Civil War and its aftermath that ended a lifestyle, leaving individuals in shock and struggling to cope (or die) with more than just the deaths of loved ones as the iceberg is turned upside down almost over night.

This autobiographical compilation is extremely interesting for those historical readers who devour anything Americana, especially things related to the Civil War. The journal and letters keep the audience fascinated in a voyeur like look because it is obvious that Mary hid little, as she was writing for herself and not mass publication. It is that open glimpse that makes this a fabulous non-fiction work, which will lead the audience seeking Mr. Cote's other memoir compilation, SAFE HOUSE, as this reviewer plans to do.

Harriet Klausner