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As you get acquainted with the general characteristics of the personal texts in front of you, begin to get a sense of what we can think of as the cast of characters and the main "plot" that inspired the writing. In a diary, we must depend on the diarist to introduce us to the people in his life. It often is a useful measure of his approach to diary-keeping to see whether family and friends are introduced or whether it is left to us to figure out who they are. Letter-writers seldom introduce themselves and others, because, unlike most diarists who at least imagine an "outside" reader, few correspondents thought we would be reading their mail. Nonetheless, it helps to try at the outset to get a sense of who friends and family members are and how they address each other, especially if you are using unedited manuscript or facsimile letters. Some families rarely use given names in either salutation or signature. Your reading of these letters will go slowly until you learn, by context and handwriting, to determine the identity of "Dear Son" or "Your loving daughter." Similarly, many upper class families employed odd nicknames ("Knobby" or "Bootsie"), and often adolescent girls in the nineteenth century addressed each other as characters from literature or classical mythology ("Rowena" or "Athena"), making it a challenge sometimes to figure out who is who.

In terms of "plot," a quick, broad survey of a collection of letters or a diary can be helpful in revealing whether a particular circumstance inspired the writing, and thus whether there is a large-scale, dramatic "story" holding the pages and the correspondents together. Many Civil War diaries, for instance, like those of Virginians Lucy Breckinridge and Lucy Buck, begin and end with the war, thus introducing us to a writer who inscribes her life as a story in neat parallel with the national conflict and then exits. Similarly, letters from African American soldiers fighting against the Confederacy in Edward Redkey’s collection, or those from New England mill women in Thomas Dublin’s volume, clearly are inspired by the writers’ desire to map the huge changes in their lives. Quite differently, other diaries – and even more letters – are plotted around the sheer ordinariness of the writer’s life, such as the journals of Maine midwife Martha Ballard in the early nineteenth-century and of North Carolina farmer Basil Thomasson at mid-century. In either case, though, surveying the text for a sense of the main narrative thread is a good way to prompt questions about the text as you begin to read more closely.

And while you are at it, keep an eye out for language that puzzles you. When first looking at nineteenth-century letters, for instance, many modern readers are puzzled by some correspondents’ interjection of "D.V." in the midst of certain sentences expressing hope ("by now, D.V., you are safely at home") when these letters are not the recipient’s initials. Then, finally, one writer solves the puzzle for us by spelling it out: Deo Volente, God willing. Such puzzles will help you to be alert to the fact that the meaning of certain words or phrases is coded (to say in the mid-nineteenth-century that a woman had "taken a cold" almost always meant that she was pregnant) or has changed over time ("to have conversation with" a man or a woman in the early nineteenth century was a phrase which usually meant "to have sex with," whereas the word "intercourse" did not have a sexual connotation until the end of the century).



The excerpts below are from the 1855 diary of Mary F. Henderson, a planter class woman living near Salisbury, North Carolina.* Read these entries and think about how to figure out who the characters are in the diary, what is the plot, and what are the implications of both.

August 11, 1855: I hope Fanny who is very sick with Pneumonia may recover, she seems very weak. – I sent Len to Town this morning for a guire of letter paper – he also brought me a note from Mr. Myers....

August 12: No church today...Dr. Nesbitt found Fanny rather better this morning – he cupped her again – I have very little faith in Doctors for our own children – They either get scared or something I can’t tell what – Their prescriptions do no good – ....I hope Fanny will get well....

August 13: Fanny still a very sick little child. Dr. Nesbitt attending her twice a day – Sister Jane came down alone in the carriage quite early and spent the day sociably with us – brought us a very large bouquet of beautiful flowers – roses....

August 14: ...Fanny seems rather better, much less fever but is slightly salivated which I always dread especially in children and when one is as weak as she, the Dr. blistered her this morning – it drew well, but she is very hoarse and takes but little nourishment....

August 16: ...Poor little Fanny continues very ill, desperately so I fear, she has been sick now a fortnight....poor little Fanny looks wretchedly – I fear her case is hopeless – I have nursed my own children through such desperate attacks and seen so many die it rends my heart to witness the sickness of even a little servant, she is a nice pretty smart little girl and I should grieve to see her die. She has been faithfully and well nursed by Eliza but life hands by a tender thread....

August 17: ...Our little servant Fanny seems desperately sick to me, more fever this evening and I do not think she has spoken for a week, looks sensible but never even calls for water, frets and cries a good deal, has a tight and apparently painful cough....

August 18: ...Poor little Fanny is worse today – I have no hope, she is a nice smart little servant and one I shall regret to lose – her attack has been a singular one, she has not spoken one word for several days but looks bright and intelligent....I fear Fanny will not last through the night she is cold and much worse, has every appearance of dying to me – what unfortunate people we are – she was 5 years old in June a few weeks younger than my first little daughter [deceased] – My children’s births and deaths are associated with almost everything I see and oftentimes with other persons children....How often death visits this family either the black or white....Eliza has nursed Fanny most untiringly and if she dies it will not be from any neglect on her part, mine, or the Doctor’s for she has been well attended to....

August 20: ...Fanny seemed better last night – her tongue looks well, it really is a very singular attack – she eats freely but does not speak one word....she will recover the Dr. thinks....

August 22: ...Fanny is better and I believe will now get well she spoke this morning – Dr. Nesbitt has managed her case skillfully – he attended my other children and they all died – I feel as if my heart would break....

Which of these quotes help you to figure out what’s being described, or the “plot”? (There may be more than one correct answer)

"I hope Fanny who is very sick with Pneumonia may recover"
"Sister Jane came down alone in the carriage quite early and spent the day sociably with us"
"I have nursed my own children through such desperate attacks and seen so many die"
"How often death visits this family either the black or white"


Which of these quotes help you to figure out the “characters”? (There may be more than one correct answer)

"Dr. Nesbitt found Fanny rather better this morning – he cupped her again"
"it rends my heart to witness the sickness of even a little servant"
"I sent Len to Town this morning for a guire of letter paper"
"Eliza has nursed Fanny most untiringly"