A Northern Woman in the Plantation South: Letters of Tryphena Blanche Holder Fox, 1856-1876

Isolated shortly before the Civil War by her marriage to a far from affluent doctor who treated planters and slaves in a tiny Louisiana river parish, Massachusetts-born Tryphena Fox responded to these circumstances by corresponding with her relatives. The 81 letters collected here reveal the writer as a resourceful woman, much concerned with family, who harbored intellectual and social aspirations. The correspondence is annotated and unobtrusively edited by Michigan State University American history professor King. Though regrettably making only rare mention of politics in Fox's time, the letters reflect the struggle for survival of a middle-class couple and 10 children, as well as the author's all-too-typical view of slaves as mostly ``unreliable . . . lazy and impudent,'' along wtih her rage at Yankees who ravaged the South--including the Fox home. Illustrations not seen by PW. (May)