(1823-1886) Mary was a South Carolinian high-society wife, and while she had nothing to do with this trial, she did leave some comments about southern life in her published diary that shed light on the lifestyle to which Jane would have been subjected. Mary began her diary on February 18, 1861, and ended it on June 26, 1865. She was an eyewitness to many historic events as she accompanied her husband to significant sites of the Civil War. Although she edited the diary during the 1870s and 1880s for publication, she retained the sense of events unfolding without foreknowledge. She was forthright about complex and fraught situations related to slavery, particularly the abuses of sexuality and power. For instance, Chesnut confronted the problem of white men fathering children with enslaved women in their own extended households. Literary scholars have called the Chesnut diary the most important work by a Confederate author. (From Wikipidia)