In her words : the historically edited diary of Elizabeth Tucker Coalter Bryan, in the context of the history of southern antebellum women

Abstract

This thesis discusses the diary of Elizabeth Tucker Coalter Bryan, an antebellum southern plantation lady, written in 1853 and spanning from January to June. In addition to presenting a background of antebellum southern women's history and insights gained through the study of Elizabeth Tucker Coalter Bryan's diary, this thesis also includes a historically edited transcription of the Bryan diary complete with contextual and textual annotations. The first chapter presents a broad historical background of antebellum southern women's history as relates to study of the Elizabeth Tucker Coalter Bryan diary. The second chapter examines the process of historical editing, including history, practice, and methods involved in the editorial process. The second half of chapter two provides the editorial method governing the process taken in editing the Elizabeth Tucker Coalter Bryan in detail. The third chapter is the transcription, broken up by diary entry, and later in the chapter, by original page number for easy reference to the annotations in the following chapter. Textual notes appear in this chapter as footnotes. Chapter four provides the contextual notes numbered by entry or original page number, then term. Chapter five concludes with analysis of insights gained through the study of Elizabeth Tucker Coalter Bryan's diary relating to study of antebellum southern women's history and the process of documentary editing.