William Kauffman Scarborough's absorbing biography, The Allstons of Chicora Wood, chronicles the history of a South Carolina planter family from the opulent antebellum years through the trauma of the Civil War and postwar period. Scarborough's examination of this extraordinarily enterprising family focuses on patriarch Robert R. F. W. Allston, his wife Adele Petigru Allston, and their daughter Elizabeth Allston Pringle Scarborough. Scarborough shows how Allston, in the four decades before the Civil War, converted a small patrimony into a Lowcountry agricultural empire of seven rice plantations, all the while earning an international reputation for the quality of his rice and his expertise. Scarborough also examines Allston's twenty-eight-year career in the state legislature and as governor from 1856 to 1858. Upon his death in 1864, Robert Allston's wife of thirty-two years, Adele, found herself at the head of the family. Scarborough traces how she successfully kept the family plantations afloat in the postwar years through a series of decisions that exhibited her astute business judgment and remarkable strength of character. In the next generation, one of the Allstons' five children followed a similar path. Elizabeth "Bessie" Allston took over management of the remaining family plantations upon the death of her husband and, in order to pay off the plantation mortgages, embarked on a highly successful literary career. Bessie authored two books, the first treating her experiences as a woman rice planter and the second describing her childhood before the war. A major contribution to southern history, The Allstons of Chicora Wood provides a fascinating look at a prominent southern family that survived the traumas of war and challenges of Reconstruction.

The war is over, but at Fairhaven Plantation, Charlotte's struggle has just begun. Following her father’s death, Charlotte Fraser returns to Fairhaven, her family’s rice plantation in the South Carolina Lowcountry. With no one else to rely upon, smart, independent Charlotte is determined to resume cultivating the superior strain of rice called Carolina Gold. But the war has left the plantation in ruins, her father’s former bondsmen are free, and workers and equipment are in short supply. To make ends meet, Charlotte reluctantly agrees to tutor the two young daughters of her widowed neighbor and heir to Willowood Plantation, Nicholas Betancourt. Just as her friendship with Nick deepens, he embarks upon a quest to prove his claim to Willowood and sends Charlotte on a dangerous journey that uncovers a long-held family secret, and threatens everything she holds dear. Inspired by the life of a 19th-century woman rice farmer, Carolina Gold pays tribute to the hauntingly beautiful Lowcountry and weaves together mystery, romance, and historical detail, bringing to life the story of one young woman’s struggle to restore her ruined world. A native of west Tennessee, Dorothy Love makes her home in the Texas hill country with her husband and their two golden retrievers. An accomplished author, Dorothy made her debut in Christian fiction with the Hickory Ridge novels.

A collection of Pringle's weekly columns in the New York Sun. Her father had been a governor and a rice planter. Her family spent summers on Pawley's Island and owned the Nathaniel Russell House in Charleston.

The reissue of The South Carolina Rice Plantation as Revealed in the Papers of Robert F.W. Allston makes available for a new generation of readers a firsthand look at one of South Carolinas most influential antebellum dynasties and the institutions of slavery and plantation agriculture upon which it was built. Often cited by historians, Robert F.W. Allstons letters, speeches, receipts, and ledger entries chronicle both the heyday of the rice industry and its precipitate crash during the Civil War. As Daniel C. Littlefield underscores in his introduction to the new edition, these papers are significant not only because of Allstons position at the apex of planter society but also because his views represented those of the rice planter elite.

Born to affluence and opportunity in the South's Golden Age, Mary Motte Alston Pringle (1803-1884) represented the epitome of Southern white womanhood. Her husband was a wealthy rice planter who owned four plantations and 337 slaves. Her thirteen children included two Harvard scholars, seven world travelers, a U.S. Navy war hero, six Confederate soldiers, one possible Union collaborator, a Confederate firebrand trapped in the North, an expatriate gourmet bon vivant, and two California pioneers. How Mary Pringle, her family, and slaves lived before the Civil War, clung desperately to life in the eye of the maelstrom, and coped -- or failed to cope -- with its bewildering aftermath is the story of this book.

Theodosia Burr Alston was born the daughter of political figure Aaron Burr when the United States was in its infancy. She was a prodigious child, living a privileged life in Manhattan during a captivating period in U.S. history, and acquiring, at her father's insistence, "a most perfect education." As the young country wrestled with conflict and strife, Theodosia's life often seemed to mirror its turbulence. Her unexpected marriage startled the political world. Her struggle to adjust to the difficult and unaccustomed responsibilities as mistress of a rice plantation in South Carolina was monumental. She was the centerpiece in the lives of two very powerful men, which resulted in a painful stretch of her loyalties and caused her great inner turmoil and pain. Theodosia's story is fascinating in its complexity. An impressive woman in her own right, she was destined for greatness through her personal and political connections. The unexpected conclusion of Theodosia's story will inspire readers to learn more about this intriguing woman.

DIVThe Main and Hazard families clash on and off the Civil War’s battlefields as they grapple with the violent realities of a divided nation /divDIV America’s master storyteller continues his reign with Love and War, a story steeped in passion and betrayal. With the Confederate and Union armies furiously fighting, the once-steadfast bond between the Main and Hazard families continues to be tested. From opposite sides of the conflict, they face heartache and triumph on the frontlines as they fight for the future of the nation and their loved ones. With his impeccable research and unfailing devotion to the historical record, John Jakes offers his most enthralling and enduring tale yet./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of John Jakes including rare images from the author’s personal collection. /div