From the Eric Hoffer panel of judges:"In 1922 Rebecca
Latimer Felton became the first female U.S. Senator for the term of only
one day. This accomplishment might seem insignificant if it were not for
Felton’s long and active involvement in social reform and ultimately
women’s suffrage. Born into the destruction of the plantation
south,Felton’s life parallels the reformation of Georgia from the ashes.
Staman is an engaging biographer and does well to show us the landscape
as well as Felton’s intriguing course of events. You’ll finish this book
remembering that there is a seat at the table for everyone, if we strive
hard enough and demand the very best of ourselves."
Spanning
nearly a century (1835-1930) the life of Rebecca Latimer Felton
was profoundly changed by the disastrous effects of the Civil War
and Reconstruction upon her beloved state of Georgia. Although she had
once been a Southern Belle, then loving wife and mother on a large cotton
plantation, she began to step out of the traditions expected by southern
chivalry and tradition. With her husband's encouragement, she became a
woman politician forty-seven years before she got the right to vote. A
tireless crusader, her attempts at political and civil reform are set
against the backdrop of a state in violent chaos. Sherman's matches,
Reconstruction's graft, one-party corruption, the KKK, lynchers,
hallelujah evangelicals, chain-gang convicts,the sneering H.L. Mencken
"unsexed" suffragists, WCTU crusaders, and something possibly worse than
anything else -- a tiny insect called the boll Weevil -- all strut or
crawl or sweep across the pages of this work.
Original photos, indexed, end notes,hardback, 266 pages; ISBN-13 978-09787263-1-7; ISBN-10: 0-9787263-1-6
