Emma Spaulding Bryant: Civil War Bride, Carpetbagger’s Wife, Ardent Feminist: Letters 1860-1900

Emma Spaulding left behind rural Maine for a life in Georgia as the wife of radical Republican carpetbagger John Emory Bryant. Emma supported John’s controversial agenda - including his self-defined mission to northernize the south. Struggling to rear a daughter virtually alone in near poverty, Emma became an independent thinker, teacher, suffragist, and officer in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. In eloquent language, Emma coached her husband’s understanding of the woman question. And despite heated exchanges over marital control, the Bryants’ engaging correspondence frames a marriage of love.