Our Pen Is Time

Emma Finley, 18 years old in 1858, possessed a remarkable power to notice and describe social customs and manners in a small town, Holly Springs, Mississippi, on the eve of the Civil War. She recorded fashions, literary tastes, weddings, social gatherings, sporting events, vacation travel, religious services and mourning rituals. Few such diaries of that period exist intact today; hers was genuine and touching. Living on a large plantation in Northern Mississippi, Emma revealed the joys, sorrows and hardships in the entries into her red leather book. Written for almost two years, her diary explored the breadth and restricted character of a young lady's life during that historic period. She evoked scenes that could have filled pages of Jane Austen's English countryside. Her words captured the heady days of ante-bellum Mississippi's great prosperity, but fell silent as the prospects of social cataclysm drew near. Detailed analysis of each entry is provided by R. Milton Winter, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Holly Springs. His astute look at Southern customs adds to this sensitive diary. Included in this book is a letter from her brother, a Confederate Mississippi Ranger, which described the victory of the battle at Bull Run, July 1861. Photographs of this period richly illustrate the diary. Our Pen Is Time is part of the Holly Springs Trilogy published by the Thomas Berryhill Press.