Growing Up in the 1850s

Eleanor Agnes Lee, Robert E. Lee's fifth child, began her journal in December 1852 at the early age of twelve. An articulate young woman, her stated ambitions were modest: "The everyday life of a little school girl of twelve years is not startling," she observed in April 1853; but in fact, her five-year record of a southern girl's life is lively, unpredictable, and full of interesting detail.