Under Live Oaks: The Last Great Houses of the Old South

Book Description

“Southerners seem to stay close to each other, accumulating ties of kinship in a way that ultimately becomes almost impossible to unravel, and thus the family house remains the center of births, marriages, and deaths through the generations.”
—From Under Live Oaks

There is a part of the South that clings to its past, whether that past is an imagined or a real one. Resonant with antebellum elegance and sometimes turbulent history, the houses of Under Live Oaks act as a touchstone for another time, becoming repositories of rich family traditions for their owners.

This tenacity to hold on to their history is beautifully demonstrated in the decor of these houses, filled with antiques and personal treasures, decorated in the style that was fashionable 150 years ago and that has not been tampered with since. More than 200 images from acclaimed photographer Peter Woloszynski fill the pages of Under Live Oaks, giving a provocative view into a world many never see—a world of faded portraits, shelves of dusty porcelain, dolls lined up in an armchair, family letters, lace fans, invitations to the cotillion, old steamer trunks. These houses were the royal palaces of the age, furnished with the finest objects and fabrics—many imported from Europe—that the first half of the nineteenth century had to offer. Under Live Oaks offers a remarkably consistent vision of a period, a period that takes its place in the dark history of America and that casts a permanent shadow over its legacy.

The houses range from an Italianate villa in Columbus, Georgia, to a masterful Greek Revival mansion in Fairvue, Tennessee; from the charming Catalpa in St. Francisville, Louisiana, to the melancholy Winter Place in Montgomery, Alabama. The classic plantation houses of Natchez, Mississippi, compete in beauty with an elegant townhouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, and the historic Sherwood Forest in Charles City, Virginia. All the states of the Deep South are represented. A few of the houses are open to the public; others are unknown and unvisited except by family and friends. Yet all of them stand as witnesses to a bygone era.

Noted author Caroline Seebohm eloquently casts the stories of the land, the houses, and their owners. She vividly evokes the power of the architecture and interior design of these houses, and through her we hear the owners’ pride of place and staunch allegiance to their family history. Under Live Oaks is an intimate tour of the Old South, an experience available to only a few and that in the not-too-distant future will be lost forever.

Customer Reviews:

I wish I could give this 10 stars!.......2007-04-24

I own a 120 year old farmhouse in the South and I am fascinated w/ the history and culture. This book is a JOY! I LOVE reading about the families in the book, the photos are GORGOUS and I have been unable to put this book down! Of all the 'Home' books I've read this is by far my absolute favorite! ENJOY!!!

Photo's are great.......2003-08-22

If you like old houses of the South this book has some wonderful pictures. Some interesting photos of the interior rooms with a little bit of personal collections of the families. A great coffe table book. Not deep reading.

Southern Gothic Rehash.......2002-12-13

Both author and photographer of "Under Live Oaks" are English, and their knowledge of the South is distinctly secondhand and second-rate. Seebohm even acknowledges needing a crash course in Southern architecture from a friend! Instead of genuine knowledge and insight, we are offered a gauzy gothic cocktail of Hollywood cliches. (Mix one shot of "Gone With the Wind" with a dash of "Suddenly Last Summer" and a gallon of "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte.") For a beautiful and intelligent book on Southern architecture, try "Architecture of the Old South" by Mills Lane. For photos that shed some light on Southern myths and realities, try "William Eggleston's Guide."

Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South (Gender and American Culture)

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Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women on the Old South (Gender and American Culture)
Scholarly and Enlightening
An interesting and very good attempt

Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South (Gender and American Culture)
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 080784232X

Book Description

Documenting the difficult class relations between women slaveholders and slave women, this study shows how class and race as well as gender shaped women's experiences and determined their identities. Drawing upon massive research in diaries, letters, memoirs, and oral histories, the author argues that the lives of antebellum southern women, enslaved and free, differed fundamentally from those of northern women and that it is not possible to understand antebellum southern women by applying models derived from New England sources.

Customer Reviews:

Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women on the Old South (Gender and American Culture).......2007-03-10

Everything arrived in perfect order

Scholarly and Enlightening.......2006-01-04

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese has produced a very scholarly and enlightening examination of women of the old South. In vivid detailed with painstaking research, she presents the daily lives of women, black and white, within the plantation household. Though written from an academic perspective, the author has succeeded in presenting her research in an entertaining and even captivating narrative style. For those looking for the behind the scenes lifestyle of unknown women of the South, this is the one book of choice.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction." He has also authored "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and the forthcoming "Sacred Friendships: Listening to the Voices of Women Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors."

An interesting and very good attempt.......1999-05-19

This is an impressive and large-scale achievement. I would have appreciated more acknowledgment of the role that white male eurocentric paradigms played (and continue to play) in the south and oppresion of Women of Color. Overall, a good starting place.

Scarlett's Sisters: Young Women in the Old South

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Scarlett's Sisters: Young Women in the Old South
Anya Jabour
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Southern Sons: Becoming Men in the New Nation

ASIN: 0807831018

Book Description

Scarlett's Sisters explores the meaning of nineteenth-century southern womanhood from the vantage point of the celebrated fictional character's flesh-and-blood counterparts: young, elite, white women. Anya Jabour demonstrates that southern girls and young women faced a major turning point when the Civil War forced them to assume new roles and responsibilities as independent women. By tracing the lives of young white women in a society in flux, Jabour reveals how the South's old social order was maintained and a new one created as southern girls and young women learned, questioned, and ultimately changed what it meant to be a southern lady.

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A Journey through the South
"Ursa Major"....A Down-to-Earth Book About South Carolina

Ursa Major: A Tale of the Old South
Mary Claire Pinckney
Manufacturer: Consumer Educ Research Center
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0934870934

Book Description

In Ursa Major, Pinckney details the lives of Christian Perry, son of plantation owners Daniel and Betsy Perry, and Prophet, the son Daniel fathers by a 16 year old slave girl. Despite the barriers existing in a nineteenth century society, childhood adventures form a lifelong bond between these half brothers.

Separated from Christian, who journeys to Rome to become a priest, Prophet escapes slavery via the underground railway. Struggling with the confinement of a commitment to the cloth, Christian abandons his priestly calling and returns to the plantation, called Ursa Major, just before the outbreak of the Civil War.

After Christian and Prophet survive the war, they and their families are reunited to face the challenge of reconstruction together.

Customer Reviews:

A Journey through the South.......2000-10-12

Ursa Major is a book that portrays a Southern era often forgotten in today's history lessons. The narration begins decades before the onslaught of the Civil War and ends soon after it's aftermath in which the novelist, Mary Claire Pinckney, tells a story of a man's life from birth to adulthood on a plantation in the Deep South. The story is simple, yet poignant as it weaves a tale that draws the reader in. There are no grandiose tradgedies portrayed in the novel, no dark family secrets to be told to ruin lives and no evil so great to be awe inspiring, instead, it is a story of a family that faces what all families face: death, love, birth, infidelity and happiness. The novel is sometimes simplistic and idealistic in its views of slavery, but tries to be honest in the relationships between owners and slaves, though it fails at times through it's telling of Prophet's story. The story of the main character and his family is heightened with the interplay of Catholisicm in their lives and its overiding importance in an era and a region where Catholics were a stark minority; while the strength and poignancy of Christian's character bring back to the reader the ideal of community and family and it's importance to ones' life in a time now where that is often forgotten. Overall, the novel is well thought out and a pleasure to read. Its writing is simple, yet interesting and melds nicely with a story that is well worth the telling.

"Ursa Major"....A Down-to-Earth Book About South Carolina.......2000-09-28

Mary Claire Pinckney has given us a refreshingly candid appraisal of plantation life that spans South Carolina's history from the early days of Charleston through the post-Civil War era. The story line follows two boys' lives...one of them a scion of plantation aristocracy and the other a symptom of, and the product of, the problems inherent in the practice of slavery.

The book, by means of some rather unusual twists of plot and the use of authentic Low Country dialect, gives the reader insightful glimpses of life as it very probably was lived during the years covered in the story. There are exceptions to what the average reader might expect in a novel about this place and time, but those exceptions only prove the old adage about judgements and book covers.

Customer Reviews:

The Rich Young Ruler....a different choice. .......2007-06-02

In Luke chapter 18, we learn of a rich young man who turned away from following Christ. What would have happened had he followed Jesus? This book gives one possible answer. This is one of the two or three finest books I've ever read, not just Civil War Books. It is the story of Leonidas Polk, the son of a very wealthy North Carolina plantation owner, who was converted to Christianity while at West Point, and entered the Episcopal ministry. While continuing to run a successful plantation, he was a priest, then a missionary Bishop, then presiding Bishop of Louisiana. This book gives a wealth of Church history during the years 1830-1860, including much detail of Polk's founding of the University of the South. Accepting the offer of a commission tendered by his old friend Jefferson Davis, Polk became a Lieutenant General in the Army of Tennessee.

While the book gives more space to the "Bishop" than to the "General", there is plenty of information about Polk's military campaigns. His problems as a General are not glossed over, including less than perfect coordination during the Kentucky campaign of 1862, and his difficulties with General Bragg are well reported. [Bragg could be difficult, and the Bishop was not the only General who held a dim view of him] General Polk was killed at Pine Mountain, GA on June 14, 1864; not long before his death, he baptised Generals Hood and Joe Johnston. This would be a fitting end to a book that is a superb combination of Church and Military history. But, of course, the story of a successful Minister never really ends; numerous Churches consecrated by Bishop Polk are still in service, and the world class University he founded continues to train young people for Christian service. The life and career of Leonidas Polk remains a problem for some. How could a Christian man and Priest own around 500 slaves? He was a man of his time and place, and saw no conflict. On the record, his slaves were as well treated as any in the South. Whether we are discussing Bishop Polk, Thomas Jefferson, or even FDR, it is dangerous to project our values onto a man from a different age. Perhaps not a book for the general reader, but get this one, and read it. You won't be sorry.

Plantation Houses and Mansions of the Old South

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Needs better pictures
A treasury of classic Southern architecture

Plantation Houses and Mansions of the Old South
J. Frazer Smith
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0486278484

Book Description

Profusely illustrated survey ranges from pioneer cabins to French Provincial and Neoclassic revivals. Detailed drawings, including 36 floor plans, depict such venerable residences as The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's homestead, the Gothic chapel of Old Jefferson College, many more. Rich commentary, with additional material on carpentry, other topics. 109 line illustrations, 7 halftones. Bibliography.

Customer Reviews:

Needs better pictures.......2005-08-07

The author speaks of the pleasing cream color used on the stucco walls of a particular home, but we are looking at an ink drawing. There are no actual photograhs in the book. I didn't enjoy trying to "imagine the color" at all.

I found it hard to recognize homes such as "Oak Alley" which I have actually visited. The line drawing did nothing to impress me at all. The artist line drawings do not do any home in the book any justice. It's unfortunate that after reading a small part of the book, I put it aside because I don't have a photo reference of the house I'm reading about.

This book would be better left on the shelf. Don't waste your money.

A treasury of classic Southern architecture.......2001-05-15

"Plantation Houses and Mansions of the Old South," by J. Frazer Smith, is an informative celebration of the home architecture of the southern United States. This volume is actually an unabridged reprint; the book was originally published in 1941 with the title "White Pillars: Early Life and Architecture of the Lower Mississippi Valley Country." The book includes a foreword by Leicester B. Holland.

The book contains drawings and floor plans of many historic homes. These visual elements are accompanied by a generous text. Smith not only profiles important homes, but also illustrates the evolution of the southern home from a single one-room cabin into "dogtrot" homes, and eventually into larger structures.

Some of the homes presented in the book are Cragfont (1820) of Tennessee, with its impressive second-floor ballroom; Andrew Jackson's "the Hermitage" (1831); the Forks of Cypress (1820), an Alabama house with a 2-story wrap-around portico; and the Walter place (1855), a Mississippi home with twin octagonal towers.

Unfortunately, a perspective drawing and floor plans are not included for every house presented in the book. Also, an unpleasant racist subtext shows up at points in the book. Holland's foreword notes that the book "is a survey of the habitations of man of the Caucasian race [...] of the south." Elsewhere in the book are offhand or patronizing references to "niggers," "darkies," and an "old Mammy."

Since this book is an historic reprint, I believe that these racist remarks should be placed in proper context (but not ignored or excused). But if you want to see the majestic Greek-inspired pillars, covered porches, imposing staircases, and other elements that characterize classic southern architecture, check out this book.

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Old Plantations and Historic Homes Around Middleburg Virginia: And the Families Who Lived and Loved Within Their Walls
Audrey Windsor Bergner
Manufacturer: Howell Press Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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A Pride of Place: Rural Residences of Fauquier County, Virginia

Middleburg Mystique: A Peek Inside the Gates of Middleburg, Virginia (Capital Hometown Guides)

ASIN: 1574271423

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Good Despite the Feminist Harping

Dull, boring.

An honest description of the role of plantation mistresses

Disappointed

Political Commentary Not History

Plantation Mistress: Woman's World in the Old South
Catherine Clinton
Manufacturer: Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South (Gender and American Culture)

Ar'N't I A Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South

Mary's World: Love, War, and Family Ties in Nineteenth-century Charleston

Sarah Morgan: The Civil War Diary Of A Southern Woman

Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 (Brown Thrasher Books)

ASIN: 0394516869

Book Description

This pioneering study of the much-mythologized Southern belle offers the first serious look at the lives of white women and their harsh and restricted place in the slave society before the Civil War. Drawing on the diaries, letters, and memoirs of hundreds of planter wives and daughters, Clinton sets before us in vivid detail the daily life of the plantation mistress and her ambiguous intermediary position in the hierarchy between slave and master.

"The Plantation Mistress challenges and reinterprets a host of issues related to the Old South. The result is a book that forces us to rethink some of our basic assumptions about two peculiar institutions -- the slave plantation and the nineteenth-century family. It approaches a familiar subject from a new angle, and as a result, permanently alters our understanding of the Old South and women's place in it.

Customer Reviews:

Good Despite the Feminist Harping.......2006-10-19

Plantation Mistriss paints a dim portrait of the lives of the allegedly pampered southern flowers of womanhood who were the (behind the scenes) engineers of southern aristocracy. Since many of them assumed the mantle of responsibility at ages as young as fourteen and commonly at around sixteen to eighteen this book is particularly fascinating. It is also chock full of detail on everything from the Plantation Mistriss's ability to supervise a hog killing to the knitting of socks. Her day was never done. Then the poor dears had to deal with the complicated sexual politics of the day. They were doomed to withhold themselves sexually in order to maintain the notions that sex was a chore for a lady thus robbing them of any standing to demand fidelity from their husbands. All these women could do was seeth while their husbands snuck off to the slave quarters. Being a sexual pedestal had its price.

Factually, this book is a gold mine of information and detail. It does have a typical feminist undercurrent of victimization but that is a minor flaw. Academics are just compelled to wow the reader with their ability to extrapolate deep meaning out of simple facts. However, the non-existence of books which utilize the availability of direct sources leaves us to rely on academics who pour over archives rather than thinking to ask. It's too bad no one thought to commit to paper the first hand accounts of former membes of the pre-war south who lived well until the 1940s and even into the 50s. Rather we have only academic analysis of reems of archive material.

This book is very entertaining and informative despite its feminist agenda.

Dull, boring........2006-08-03

This book is so dry I couldn't even finish it. The subject is fascinating but the material is presented in a way that is just plain boring.

An honest description of the role of plantation mistresses.......2005-12-31

I think the negative reviewers who discredit the book for being biased are, in fact, displaying their own prejudices. I have searched through the available literature on this subject, which is incredibly sparse, and this is the first book I have found that even attempted to portray these women's lives with any detail or realism. The author researched this topic as thoroughly as possible and obviously strives to present a balanced view. I cannot understand the complaint that the author jumps from one time period to another, as I found the book very easy to follow. I suspect that many readers are buying this book expecting a romantic fantasy of plantation life. If you really want to know what life was like for a plantation misress - read this book.

Disappointed.......2005-10-24

First, let me state that I have read hundreds of books and have never written a bad review. This book is an exception.

I purchased this book hoping to read facts regarding women on plantations. I was disppointed as this book is based mainly on the writer's view versus historical facts. The book covers the period of 1780-1835. However, the author on multiple occasions refers to the Civil War period. Too much "bouncing" around throughout the years.

Yes, she does quote portions of historical letters but I felt these were used most likely out of context in order to support the writer's point of view without actual facts cited.

The writer's negativity toward other books written on plantation mistresses and their authors, which she refers to frequently in the book, are deplorable. Why mention them at all. It only makes one want to read the books that she things so little of.

Harsh...yes perhaps this review is harsh. Bottom line, I read the book and would not recommend it as good factual reading.

Political Commentary Not History.......2004-12-16

It is true that the authoress quotes much from some primary sources, however the book is basically an expression of her political/social opinions and is not a history. Her liberal biases, ardent feminism, lack of respect for Christian values, and her very limited understand of Southern culture and history, are overwhelmingly expressed. If you are an historian who was taught to evaluate primary sources without your personal biases, and if you are interested in a true history that reflects these values, you'll be sadly disappointed with this book.

The Old South Frontier: Cotton Plantations and the Formation of Arkansas Society, 1819-1861

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The Old South Frontier: Cotton Plantations and the Formation of Arkansas Society, 1819-1861
Donald P. McNeilly
Manufacturer: University of Arkansas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1557286191

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Caution
A Good View Of History Without The Boredom!

Old Louisiana
Lyle Saxon
Manufacturer: Pelican Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0882897055

Customer Reviews:

Caution.......2005-09-29

I have no particular gripe with Lyle Saxon -- I only encountered this book for some quick lexicographic research -- but readers should be cautioned that, in the lengthy excerpt I read, his is a thoroughly untroubled view of the legacy of slavery, and the black characters are presented largely as happy, childlike simpletons absolutely deferential to and enamored of their benevolent white superiors, albeit with dangerous impulses toward inexplicable violence among themselves.

Those who have encountered the "Happy Darky" stereotype before will likely cringe, for instance, when reading about the impoverished, uneducated black characters, including adults and an elderly man, gleefully falling over one another in the "hunting Santa" episode, in which a white woman of the plantation house has strewn sprigs of mistletoe for which the black characters hunt, many making hound-dog noises, in pursuit of "Santa" (a white woman in disguise). When they see her, many of them wail and scurry away in terror, until eventually one grown woman tentatively approaches for her stocking of fruit, nuts, &c. -- which are cast as evidence of the absolute beneficence and humaneness of the wealthy white dwellers of the manor house.

The nostalgia for slavery and the Jim-Crow world that prevailed for almost a century thereafter is unmitigated and ultimately creepy, made more so by the second-person narration, which places the reader among the good-hearted privileged white folks being served hand-and-foot by the black characters. For some reason I feel I should point out defensively that I am from the rural South, but it really shouldn't matter.

Ultimately, Saxon's portrayal of race relations doesn't appear hateful, but the miasma of nostalgia seems to make him thoroughly unreflective on the subject, not altogether unlike William F. Buckley's reveries about his childhood of wealth and privilege, and how he grew up dreading and resenting changes to his lovely and pleasant way of life, never much interested in reflecting, so far as I've read, on how his inherited privilege was predicated on the disadvantages of folks not of the yacht-and-ponies set.

It's largely unfair to compare Saxon with more important white Southern authors such as his contempraries Faulkner, Welty, Caldwell, and later O'Connor, but a moment's reflection on their more serious and conflicted engagement with the South's racial heritage will show how the sweet, elegiac nostalgia of Saxon's book is missing some key ingredients.

A Good View Of History Without The Boredom!.......2000-03-02

I'm pleased to find this book has been reprinted. I have found it to be most interesting and helpful to coincide with dates and history of Louisiana and compare those to my own geneology at the time my ancestors lived there. Mr. Saxon's love for this historical and diversed state and its people is very evident.

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