Skip to main content
The Official Web Site of the State of South Carolina

Artifact of the Week: Emmala Reed's Journal

Handwritten leather bound journal
Tue, 03/02/2021

Our artifact of the week this week is one of the journals of Emmala Reed, daughter of Anderson Judge Jacob Pinckney Reed. Emmala wrote a series of journals in the 1860s as the Civil War was ending, the nascent Confederacy was in its death throes, and Reconstruction began throughout the South. Her insights into Anderson as the daughter of an upper-class merchant and lawyer at this key period are some of the most important primary sources for not only the city of Anderson but the Upstate of South Carolina. In 2004, these journals were published into A Faithful Heart: The Journals of Emmala Reed 1865 and 1866. If you're interested in reading these accounts of a most tumultuous period in American history from an Andersonian perspective, stop by our Research Room on Tuesdays from 1pm to 7pm.

Handwritten journal and cover of journal