Mary Mann Hamilton (1866–1937)

Trials of the Earth is the autobiography of Mary Mann Hamilton, born in Arkansas around 1866. Her family ran a boarding house, where she met and married one of the guests, an Englishman with a mysterious past. After marrying, she and husband Frank moved to Missouri and then to Mississippi, where the majority of the story is set. They lived and worked near logging camps, and later switched to farming.

I value this book for its historical significance. It is a time capsule of sorts and would make excellent reference material for those writing historical fiction about the era to get a feel for what life was truly like. And life was hard: hauling water, time-consuming constant cooking, building your own house, dealing with storms, floods, fires, wild animals (panthers, wolves, feral pigs), eating squirrels and bear meat. It was a common occurrence for babies and young children to die. Accidents and disease were commonplace. Doctors lived far away and sometimes did more harm than good, and there were few ways to communicate with anyone.

This memoir provides a picture of a pioneering life in the deep south about 30 to 40 years after the American civil war ended. It is reflective of the time and place, so expect to encounter racism, racial slurs, ethnic stereotyping, and then-common physical disciplining of children. Hamilton makes many generic pronouncements of her opinions stated as facts.

Contrary to the blurb, I found the writing lacking. Hamilton focuses on what happened, but little on why or how she felt about it. The style is blunt, rambling, and full of superfluous details. Having said that, I feel I should not be too hard on this author, since she never set out to be a writer and had a limited education. She was convinced by a friend to write her memories down, which she did in 1933, close to the end of her life. This book was published posthumously in 1992.
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I found pretty much everything about this book fascinating, from the story of its publication (manuscript lost for 60 years) to the mystery of Mary Mann Hamilton's husband, to the stirring and straightforward narrative of a hard-working life in a new country. While her life has turns happy, tragic, harrowing and outright horrifying (her vignettes about their African American neighbors), it also illustrates the great strength in keeping a cheerful and loving house despite every challenge -- something that I think we should value more today.

Advanced readers copy provided by Edelweiss.… (plus d'informations)