Digging Out Characters: Elizabeth von Arnim in Virginia

During both world wars, Elizabeth von Arnim sought sanctuary in Albemarle County, Virginia. The country house, Clover Fields, left its mark on her war novel Christine. She struggled with her own grief as she wrote of Christine’s trials. The war experience underlying the novel comes into clearer focus when compared with the writing of two contemporaries who were equally affected by the First World War, Katherine Mansfield and Vera Brittain. On her second visit to Virginia at age 73, she was again an exile, this time from home in France. As in 1917, she was angry at the American reluctance to enter the war. Preoccupied with her dog Billy, she found a perfect landlady and developed a fascination with Virginia author Amélie Rives. The resemblance of a Charlottesville man to her long-dead husband Henning evoked nostalgia for her days in Prussia and allowed her to reconcile with Henning’s ghost in a way reminiscent of Fanny Skeffington’s late equanimity.

Founding Farmers

The ancestors of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson began their sojourns in America at approximately the same level. The Jeffersons subsequently rose to the heights of wealth and culture while the Lincolns remained in the middle. The reason was that southern planters not only enjoyed the benefits of a slave workforce, they lived under a government that entrusted gentlemen to develop unworked land. Those who gained a place among the gentry received huge grants on the supposition that they would open the land and provide a shelter for smaller planters. Peter Jefferson was one beneficiary of this practice, receiving grants in what became Albemarle County, lands that were inherited by his sons. Jefferson practiced rational agriculture. He corresponded with Arthur Young and read books by English reformers. He fertilized his land and planted clover. And yet Jefferson was bankrupt at his death. He was defeated by the contradictions of the planter class. The necessity of living as a gentleman in order to enjoy the benefits of that standing made it impossible for Jefferson to curtail his standard of living and pay off his debts.

OS DESAFIOS DOS EXPATRIADOS: O ESTABELECIMENTO DO EX-ESCRAVO WILLIAM DOUGLASS E SUA FAMÍLIA NA LIBÉRIA (1857 - 1866)

Em 1854, Dr. James Hunter Terrell, dono da fazenda ‘Music Hall’, em Albemarle County, na Virgínia, fez um testamento no qual expressava sua vontade de que seus escravos fossem libertos após sua morte e preferencialmente reassentados na Libéria. Em dezembro de 1856, o Dr. James Hunter Minor, o sobrinho do fazendeiro e executor do seu testamento enviou alguns dos ex-escravos do tio para a Libéria no navio Mary Caroline Stevens. Dentre estes, estava William Douglass, nascido nos Estados Unidos e homônimo do conhecido líder abolicionista. Assim que chegou na Monróvia, em 8 de Fevereiro de 1857, ele começou a se corresponder com Dr. James Hunter Minor relatando as dificuldades e as conquistas feitas no novo lar, bem como solicitou notícias e o envio de alguns bens dos Estados Unidos. Foram encontradas somente as correspondências enviadas por William Douglass no período de 1857 até 1866.