Plantation Sketches

by Margaret Devereux, Arthur Winslow (Editor)

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

190 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 19, 2007

Reviews

[Marisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odd but fitting

If you’ve read Margaret Devereaux’s sister’s book Gleanings from Long Ago, then this book will feel somewhat familiar from time to time. They’re both written in that conversational way, which is good and bad depending on how you look at it. The topics jump around, and half the time, I’m trying to figure out how a story about a bird relates to things in the long run, but it’s an interesting book if you’re going for a brief skim of some old school American history. However, be warned that there’s outdated language that can be offensive.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting book that kept my attention all the way through.

Memorable passages:

For you, my dear grandchildren, I have tried to fix, before they fade entirely, these already faint reflections from the “light of other days.” Margaret Devereux. Raleigh, North Carolina. December, 1905.

I don’t want you to be led into the misconception held by some that Southern planters and slaveholders were cruel despots, and that the life of the negro slaves on the plantation was one of misery and sorrow.

In honor of my advent as mistress, the floors had been freshly carpeted with very pretty bright carpets, which were in danger of being utterly ruined by the muddy shoes of the raw plantation servants, recently brought in to be trained for the house.

I read this book first in 2011, I reread it in 2016 and 2021, and found it to be just as good as the first time.

💥 Recommended.
🟣

[Avis Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bits and pieces of it are okay, but other parts suffer from being too cheesy and sentimental.