Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821

English, French (translation)

Rosalie Stier, daughter of a Belgian mercantile family and wife to George Calvert, became mistress of Riversdale, a Maryland plantation near Washington, in 1802. She and her planter husband, a son of Maryland's first family, were prominent in Washington society. Her private correspondence, translated here for the first time from French, provides a detailed and lively account of plantation life and work, business, agriculture, horticulture, politics, and fashionable society, as well as a woman's role in day-to-day family life. Explanatory text and copious notes elucidate the letters. There is little by women on this era, so this is highly recommended for U.S. and women's studies collections.
- Richard Shotwell, Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.