A Personal Window into America’s Past…

Many of us may find it difficult to imagine what life was like in the 1800s. It seems so far away, and life was so different then. And yet, although the outward contours of life change, people do not – they are as filled with ambition, doubt, love, confusion, grace, and failure as we are today. In this fascinating book, Lesa Bethea presents letters from her ancestor, Alfred Bethea, a 19th-century doctor who was one of the original signers of The Ordinance of Secession of South Carolina from the Union. Lesa Bethea sets the letters in elegantly simple contexts, and allows the voice of Doctor Alfred to speak for itself. Through his intelligent and perceptive lens, we experience the life of a schoolboy, the challenges of a medical student, the trials of a young man living in unsettled territory. And in his letters to his mother, sister, and wife, we see that love and family loyalty are familiar threads that keep us anchored to the past. As Doctor Alfred lives through the troubled years leading up to The Civil War, we have the honor of reading a first-hand account of a time that changed America forever. These letters are living history, a great gift and a deeply engaging experience.