When the World Ended: The Diary of Emma LeConte by Emma LeConte

by Emma LeConte

"I wonder if the new year is to bring us new miseries and sufferings," seventeen-year-old Emma LeConte wrote in her diary on December 31, 1864. In fact, the worst was yet to come. Her later entries portray the city of Columbia, South Carolina, like much of the South, under the grip of Sherman's army. No reader of this diary is likely to forget the defiant, well-bred Emma, who describes a family's anxieties and brave attempts to get on with life while the Civil War rages around them.In a new foreword to the Bison Books edition, Anne Firor Scott, a professor of history at Duke University whose writings include The Southern From Pedestal to Politics, 1830-1930, rounds out the story of the remarkable Emma LeConte and the life she made after her familiar world ended.

Genres: History, Civil War, Memoir, Nonfiction, American History, American Civil War

Paperback

First published October 1, 1987

Reviews

[Merrikay · Rating 5 out of 5]

LeConte specifically records her experiences in Columbia,  South Carolina, during Sherman's devastating march through the South in this volume of her work.  Reading something like this can develop the reader's understanding of the long lastingness of bitterness and hatred that follow war.  I have heard many jokes about how "those Southerners just won't let go" and people wonder about the continued obsession with the Civil War or The War Between the States, depending on where you are from.  There is  information about the ethics of war, i.e. killing civilians, burning food supplies to cause starvation of civilians, etc.  It seems silly to me in some sense, when we are talking about killing people, to wonder if we should save libraries and museums.  Nevertheless, for those interested in that conversation this is an important volume. 

I found the information about LeConte interesting from a feminist point of view, as she is educated and pushed toward intellectual growth by her father, among others.  I found her to be highly intelligent and likable, which made it more shocking to hear her comments and beliefs about slaves.  She truly believes this group is inferior and although that is not news in itself, it is the casualness with which it is conveyed that floors.

The introduction and forward to this volume are also full of good and helpful information, helping me to notice things in the diary that I might not have noticed otherwise (as all good intros should).

I was really bothered by reading Twains Diary of Adam and Eve because of the way he spoke about women, and found myself thinking about  how I would feel reading this if I were African American rather than Euro-American.  It is disturbing AND important.  Five stars for importance?

[Sapote3]

I've been making notes about this on my livejournal all through the reading. Emma LeConte, who wrote this diary, is seventeen, quite tough, and believes whole-heartedly in the Cause of the South. I have very little training in history and find it hard to stop going "IT'S MADE OUT OF PEOPLE" when I read books from this era (see also: Advice Among Masters). I really think there's a lot of value in primary sources, as far as what on earth people were thinking and how it affects our world today (I still know of no people as gifted in the art of the polite snub as grande dames of Charleston - when their (perceived) country is invaded and their is burned to the ground, in this telling, they respond by putting it about that the invading general will not be welcome at tea), but the flaw of primary sources is that they only tell you about the people who were able to write things down at the time. The most interesting person in this book is the enslaved woman Jane, who disappears from the house during the sacking of Charleston to bring home cornmeal and sugar from the stores for Emma LeConte's desperately ill baby sister. She is roundly treated in the narration as a villain. I wonder how this world looked to her.

[Shelly♥ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doesn't get any more real than this. Emma LeConte lived in Columbia,South Carolina during the Civil War, right in the path of Sherman and his men as they went on their storied march. Emma not only writes of that time, but relays information on what it was like living in the South during those last days of the war - the surrender, the assassination, the beginning of reconstruction.

Highly recommend for students of the Civil War.

[Alison]

First time I glanced at the writings of Emma LeConte (her civil war diary, penned when she was a teenager and her father was in the Confederate Army) I thought she was (just) a big jerk. On the second reading, from start to finish of this edited publication, I have a bit more empathy for her, as I still cringe at her adolescent vilification of The North and lack of conscience about her family's slave holding.

[Deb Urbano · Rating 4 out of 5]

The diary of a 16 year old girl in Columbia, SC whose family seemed fairly well-off. This was a really different perspective on the Civil War for this Yankee to read. I think it stretched my sympathy for those who are so passionate about the Confederacy.

LeConte's racism is obvious, and her hatred for the Northern power over them was clearest when she rejoiced in Lincoln's assassination. The sacrifices made to try to gain indepence from the north was driven home - inflation was insane as the war continued. Sherman did not just put o a show of force in Columbia; he burned public and personal property to the ground.

Most striking to me was the way rumors and misinformation were constantly swirling. They didn't have social networking sites, but they managed to have plenty of false facts reported about the progress of the war.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for uni.