Locating Slavery's Legacies @ Sewanee: The University of the South

Memorial Object

Plaque/Marker

Emancipationist

Fanny Kemble

Stone memorializing Fanny Kemble

The “Walk of Fame” was created in 1929 by then president Hamilton Holt to honor significant historical figures. The memorial is located in the center of campus around Mills Lawn.

Fanny Kemble was born on November 27, 1809 in London, England. She was primarily educated in Paris, France to study art, music, and literature. After finishing her studies, she became a great actor in the United States. In 1834, Kemble retired from acting and married Pierce Mease Butler, a plantation owner. Kemble was horrified by the life of the enslaved people on her husband's plantation. Her strong antipathy to slavery, led to her leaving the marriage--and her two daughters--in 1845. Her husband was granted a divorce in 1849, retaining custody of the children. In 1863, Fanny Kemble published her diary as: "Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation. in 1838-1839." Kemble was clear in her abhorrence of slavery, writing, for example, "Scorn, derision, insult, menace--the handcuff, the lash--the tearing away of children from parents, of husbands from wives...are the realities which belong to the system." (10)

Holt, Hamilton

Stone rectangular block

"Fanny Kemble"

R. A. Gould / Hamilton Holt

1929

1865-1890: Emancipation, Reconstruction and Resistance to Reconstruction

Rollins College

Walk of Fame

Rollins College; Winter Park, Florida

Frances Anne Kemble, Wikidata

Kemble's Journal

Kemble Biography

Fanny Kemble Biography