Mary Telfair to Mary Few : selected letters, 1802-1844
"This volume gathers nearly half of some 300 letters written by Mary Telfair of Savannah to her best friend, Mary Few of New York. Telfair was born in 1791 to a wealthy, prominent, slaveholding family. Few, born in 1790 into equally affluent circumstances, moved with her family from Savannah to New York in 1790. Self-exiled because of their strong antislavery views, the Fews never returned to Georgia, yet they remained close to the Telfairs." "Telfair's letters offer unique insights into the daily life of her family and the changes wrought by the deaths of so many of its members. The letters also reveal the shared interests and imperatives at the base of her various relationships with elite women, but especially with Mary Few, whom Telfair memorably described as her "Siamese Twin." The two women, neither of whom ever wed, nonetheless discussed the rights and obligations of marriage as well as their own state of "single blessedness." They also conversed about shared intellectual interests - literature, lecture topics, women's education - as well as the foibles of common acquaintances."--BOOK JACKET
Correspondence
xxxix, 317 pages : genealogical table ; 25 cm.
9780820329208, 0820329207
137305858