ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – This week’s trivia question: Why wasn’t coffee available in the South during the Civil War, and what did they use as a substitute?
Emma Mordecai was born in 1812 into a prominent Jewish family in the Southern United States. She was an ardent Confederate nationalist, owned slaves and considered this the natural order of things. During the last year of the Civil War, between May 1864 and May 1865 she kept a diary, in which she wrote about the war, its influence on daily life and her own activities.
The diary was recently edited and published with an introduction by Dr. Melissa R. Klapper and Dr. Dianne Ashton. The introduction is 83 pages long and offers extensive historical and personal context for the diary, including events that occurred before, during and after the year in which it was written. It is extremely well-documented, with abundant endnotes, and gives the reader the necessary background to be able to understand and appreciate the diary itself, which is transcribed as it was written, without further annotations.
Dr. Dianne Ashton was Professor Emerita of World Religions at Rowan University. She was an expert on Jewish women’s spirituality and the role women played in creating and promoting holiday celebrations in the United States.
Dr. Melissa R. Klapper is Professor of History and Director of Women’s & Gender Studies at Rowan University. She is the award-winning author of many books on American Jewish women’s history and the history of American childhood.
This week she is speaking with us about Emma Mordecai and the book.
