A Sisters’ World: Reasons of the South and Domestic Whispers in Grace King’s Memories of a Southern Woman of Letters

Grace King documented the American Civil War from the Southern perspective of the losers, in times in which the Northern press urged her to embrace the winners’ ideology. As she witnessed the decline of the French colonial project in post-bellum Louisiana, her writing task was to preserve the Frenchified vernacular and the exquisite Creole traditions from oblivion. Her tales and memoirs from New Orleans’ history convey the tenacity of former mistresses and colored servants in mutual defense of their refined domestic order and family bonds disrupted by the brotherly fight.

Endings

This chapter focuses on events surrounding the end of the Cotton Centennial Exposition, in particular the Woman's Day celebration on May 30, 1885. Although it was Maud Howe's time to shine because the event centered on her gift of books, her mother presided at the occasion. Grace King noted, she did so “as a matter of course. She presides at everything & has done it so long that her air, manner, smile & language are actually thread bare,” King gossiped to her sister May. King and other local women had long ago tired of Howe's intruder personality, but she had delivered useful messages and employed effective tactics to make a successful Woman's Department.