A Girl's Life in Virginia Before the War

This book contains an engrossing eyewitness account of antebellum plantation life as it really was. The author, whose family had been in Virginia for over a century, offers a lively description of the relations between master and slave in response to the falsehoods published in the North before, during, and after the War concerning the treatment of slaves in the South.

The author, Letitia M. Burwell (1810-1905), grew up at Avenel Plantation in Bedford, Virginia as one of the four daughters of William and Frances (Steptoe) Burwell. Built in 1838, her home, which was often visited by the famous Confederate General, Robert E. Lee, is on the National Register of Historic Places as well as the Virginia Landmarks Register, and is also one of the alleged haunted sites in the Roanoke area. No photographic image of Letitia is known to exist; however, beginning a year after her death, apparitions of a "Lady in White" have been reported on the property and in the house.