Very thought-provoking soliloquy written by a woman about life two years after the War Between the States! This really provides insight into the state of a young woman’s mind in 1868.
(Transcribed from The Shelby Guide, October 1, 1868)
A YOUNG LADY’S SOLILOQUY
(Transcribed from The Shelby Guide, October 1, 1868)
Useless, aimless drifting through life, what was I born for? For somebody’s wife my mother says. Well, that being true, somebody keeps himself entirely from view; and if nought but marriage will settle my fate, I believe I shall die in an unsettled state. For, though, I am not ugly—pray what woman is? – you might easily find a more beautiful phiz: and then, as for temper and manners, ’tis plain he who seeks for perfection will seek here in vain. Nay in spite of these drawbacks, my heart is perverse, and I should not feel grateful “for better or for worse,” to take the first booby that graciously came and offered me those treasurers, his home and his name. I think then my chances of marriage are small; but why should I think of such chances at all? My brothers are, all of them younger than I, yet they thrive in the world, why not let me try? I know that in business I’m not an adept, because from such business most strictly I’m kept. But– this is the question that troubles my mind, why am I not trained up to work of some kind? Uselessly, aimlessly, drifting through life. Why should I wait to be Somebody’s wife?
Alabama Footprints Confrontation is a collection of lost and forgotten stories that reveals why and how the confrontation between the Native American population and settlers developed into the Creek-Indian War as well as stories of the bravery and heroism of participants from both sides.
Stephenie Walker