The Uncompromising Diary of Sallie McNeill, 1858-1867

In this annotated diary, Sallie McNeill chronicles thoughts, observations, and details of her daily life during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. This remarkably well-preserved document tells McNeill's story from her days as a student in the female department of Baylor College at Independence until her death in 1867. McNeill's story—common to the era and place and still intensely personal—lets readers glimpse the numbing expectations of a young woman's proper behavior, moral referencing of those living under the influence of the second Great Awakening, intellectual questions posed by the education of the day, and the lifestyle of the planter class at the margins of its geographical reach.