Disunion, War, Defeat, and Recovery in Alabama: The Journal of Augustus Benners, 1850 - 1885.

Octavo, cream boards (hardcover), [xi] + 357 pp. Fine in a Fine dust jacket. From dust jacket: Disunion, War, Defeat, and Recovery in Alabama offers a rare look into the life of a civil war character many would say they love to hate: the plantation owner. A slave-owning, cotton grower, Augustus Benner recorded decades of his mostly gritty and unglamorous plantation life. Simultaneously, his entries unveil the self-portrait of a complex and troubled man, struggling to meet the demands of family, farm, and community, Benners remained haunted by fear and self-doubt in his quest for peace and stability. A devoted husband and father, Benners's tragedy of loss is almost shakespearean in scope. He touchingly recounts the deaths of dear ones: five children in the space of eleven years; his wife returning from Texas; and a long-time favorite hand ("He never referred to them as slaves"), Kit Jones, whose passing moved Benners to write "His place cannot be filled." Civil War, War between the States, War of Rebellion, United States History, U. S. History, American History, Americana, U.S.-iana zslic.…