A Family of Women

“If the truism that fact is more interesting than fiction needs proof, it is to be found in A Family of Women.” — Journal of Southern History

“This book . . . seems destined to bring the history of southern women the wide readership it has long deserved. . . . All readers will be grateful for the detailed genealogical charts the authors have provided to trace the complicated connections among this fascinating 'family of women.'” — Journal of American History

“This book is a good read. . . . Jane H. and William H. Pease have done a remarkable job of constructing a lucid and engaging narrative.” — American Historical Review

“The exceedingly rich detail [the Peases] weave into their narrative will enable other historians to draw their own conclusions on how issues of race, gender, and class impacted on the lives of plantation women before and after the cataclysmic divide of the Civil War. . . . The story the Peases relate is a fascinating one, and a very useful epilogue pulls together many of its threads.” — Journal of the Early Republic

“A Family of Women exemplifies the value of a thoughtful, detailed description of the ‘world’ that Southern women made before, during, and after the Civil War. Conveying a wealth of information, carefully nuanced in personal observations drawn from the Petigru family’s extensive correspondence, the Peases provide a compelling portrait of the lives of white southern women in one extended family over several generations.” — -American Studies

“A fascinating story of devotion and loss, beautifully told. . . . Scholars and general readers will find A Family of Women a valuable contribution to the chronicle of the Southern past. By tracing the Petigru women’s lives throughout the nineteenth century, the book has a scope that clearly reveals social change, especially that brought about by the Civil War.” — Civil War History

“The Peases bring a mature understanding of human relationships as well as experience in southern sources to illuminate life courses (e.g., marriage, childbirth, child rearing, plantation roles) taken by these women linked by blood and marriage.” — CHOICE

“Lovers of Charleston and the Lowcountry should derive both great pleasure and sadness in reading about the triumphs and tragedies of these Petigru women, and every local reenactor and tour guide ought to be compelled to read it.” — Charleston Post and Courier

“A significant contribution to our understanding of elite Southern women and of the diversity and adversity that characterized their lives. . . . Indeed, it is the interactions not only among the women of this family, but between the men and women which make the Peases' extensive research so compelling and significant.” — Times Literary Supplement

“Historians of antebellum southern women will find that this detailed study of the women in one extended upper class family provides a splendid opportunity to test their favorite hypotheses. Other southerners will find it a very good read.” — Anne Firor Scott, Duke University