Diary For Dixie By Mary Chesnut

Mary Chesnut was born on March 31, 1823, in South Carolina. Chesnut is best known for her Civil War diary, A Diary for Dixie. A Diary for Dixie tells us the story of women role during the Civil War. The first entry is dated February 18 1861. She had just found out that Mr. Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States. Mary’s family and future husband owned slaves but Mary secretly hated the facts of having slaves. Why get someone to do it when you have a head, eyes, a leg, an arm, and a pair of hands with five fingers on each, and a pair of toes with five toes on each? Even though she didn’t agree with the concept, she couldn’t do anything about it. It was in the 19th century and she was a woman. Her husband, James Chesnut,

Although she was in the rich social class, her diary showed the other side of the classes. Different social classes were talked about during and after the war, how they were affected after the war, poverty and destruction. The white people didn’t know what to do because they had slaves who did everything for them. Just like every farmer, her family fell off. Mrs. Chesnut life has been up and down. If something good happened, something bad would happen in the future. For example, she got married but later on, she found out she couldn’t have children. That would cause her to fall into depression. The last year of her life, she struggled because her widow had left her with all these debts and she had to find ways to pay them off. Her diary ended on June 26, 1865. Many Historians believe she wasn’t finished writing her diary. She died on November 22, 1886. She was sixty-three years

Chesnut was living the “perfect” life of a white woman in the south and wife of a General, Mr. Booker T. Washington, was a slave. Mr. Washington was born on April 5, 1856, in Hale’s Ford, Virginia. He was born into slavery and was only four or five when he was freed. Just like many slaves after they were freed, his life was hard. Instead of sitting around, complaining or going back to work for white people, Mr. Washington decided to do something different. While working with his stepfather one day, he hard about a school being opened for colored people. He always wanted to go to school but couldn’t because he had to work so his family wouldn’t struggle more. He went on his long journey to Hampton Institute after living with Mrs. Ruffner. While on his journey, he realized what his color meant and how hard it was only having a small amount of money. He struggled but eventually he met his goal of being a teacher. Not only was he a teacher but also he was a Civil Rights activist and public speaker. In 1985, four years after opening his own school, Tuskegee Institute, Mr. Washington gave a speech about race relations, known as The Cotton States and International Exposition Speech, and it made him a national figure. Mr. Washington struggled for most of his lifetime. He struggles while a slave, when he was free and even struggled to have an education. He didn’t have everything handed to him, if he wanted something; he had to work for it. Mr. Washington died on November