Ursa Major: A Tale of the Old South - Hardcover

Pinckney, Mary Claire

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0934870934 ISBN 13: 9780934870931

Publisher: Consumer Educ Research Center, 2000

Synopsis

In Ursa Major, Pinckney details the lives of Christian Perry, son of plantation owners Daniel and Betsy Perry, and Prophet, the son Daniel fathers by a 16 year old slave girl. Despite the barriers existing in a nineteenth century society, childhood adventures form a lifelong bond between these half brothers.

Separated from Christian, who journeys to Rome to become a priest, Prophet escapes slavery via the underground railway. Struggling with the confinement of a commitment to the cloth, Christian abandons his priestly calling and returns to the plantation, called Ursa Major, just before the outbreak of the Civil War.

After Christian and Prophet survive the war, they and their families are reunited to face the challenge of reconstruction together.

About this title

About the Author

Ms. Pinckney was born and grew up on Edisto Island, a forty mile drive from the historical city of Charleston, South Carolina. She is a Winthrop University graduate And has taken post graduate work at The Citadel, the University of Texas, and Northwest Louisiana University.

The author is highly qualified to write of the lowcountry, having experienced many of the adventures of which she writes. As she tells about pre-Civil War years, she calls upon family stories brought down through the years. Ms. Pinckney uses materials found in old family letters and documents, church records and other sources of her intense research.

Ms. Pinckney is known in the coastal area for her booklets in which she translates old familiar stories into Gullah, the dying language of the people of that culture.

Edition details

• Publisher: Consumer Educ Research Center
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0934870934
• ISBN 13: 9780934870931
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 409