Old Charlestonian

Caroline Howard Gilman was born on October 9 1794, and was raised in Boston, Massachusetts. Through out her whole life she always had an interest in writing but deemed it "unladylike" for her work to be read. When a poem of hers was published into a newspaper and she was according to the Library Company Caroline is quoted being, "as alarmed as if I had been detected in man's apparel!" After that initial upset she became more accepting and comfortable with her literature being read and published. 

According to the source, Find a Grave, In December of 1819 Caroline married Unitarian minister Samuel Gilman and relocated to Charleston, South Carolina. Upon her arrival she began writing, but her career in literature got off to a slow start due to her having many pregnancies and four long term surviving children. In 1932 she began writing the Rosebud, one of the nations earliest children magazines. 

When the tensions between the North and South began heating up Caroline was unable to pick sides. She was raised in one place but currently resided in another. This resulted in her two most famous books, The Recollection of a Housekeeper and The Recollection of a Southern Matron. They both told a story of what is was like in a Northern vs Southern household in hopes the readers from both parts of the country would see all the domestic similarities between the two and help lower the tensions. 

 During the Civil War Caroline and her family moved to Greenville, South Carolina for their safety, but promptly returned to Charleston in 1865. In that time she continued her writing, and most memorably wrote a book of poetry with her daughter. She moved to Washington DC with said daughter in the years prior to passing. Sadly, Caroline Howard Gilman outlived all of her children but one, and died at the age of 93 on September 15, 1888 and was transported and buried in Charleston's Unitarian Church Cemetery.

I am very happy with my decision in having chose Caroline Howard Gilman for my Old Charlestonian assignment because I was able to relate to some aspects of her life. We both are from Boston Massachusetts and came to Charleston for our adult lives. Although I came here for college and not marriage I can most definitely relate to some of the feelings and culture changes she wrote about and felt moving from the North to South.