Mary Ann Harris Gay (March 18, 1829 – November 21, 1918) was an American writer and poet from
Decatur, Georgia
Decatur is a city in, and the county seat of, DeKalb County, Georgia, which is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. With a population of 24,928 in the 2020 census, the municipality is sometimes assumed to be larger since multiple ZIP Codes in ...
, known for her
memoir ''Life in Dixie During the War'' (1897) about her life in
Atlanta during the American Civil War. Author
Margaret Mitchell
Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel, published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel '' Gone with the Wind'', for which she wo ...
said Gay's memoir inspired some passages in her novel ''
Gone with the Wind'' (1936). Gay also published a book of poetry in 1858, which she republished after the war to raise money to help support her mother and sister.
Gay was a support of the Confederacy, and after the end of the war, was active in efforts to preserve Confederate battlefields and construct
Confederate monuments
In the United States, the public display of Confederate monuments, memorials and symbols has been and continues to be controversial. The following is a list of Confederate monuments and memorials that were established as public displays and symb ...
and cemeteries. Gay raised thousands of dollars to pay for a fence and gate at the newly established
McGavock Confederate Cemetery
The McGavock Confederate Cemetery is located in Franklin, Tennessee. It was established in June 1866 as a private cemetery on land donated by the McGavock planter family.
The nearly 1,500 Confederate soldiers buried there were casualties of the ...
in 1866 in
Franklin, Tennessee. Her brother was among the nearly 2,000 Confederate soldiers reinterred there from temporary battlefield graves.
In 1997, Gay was named a
Georgia Woman of Achievement
The Georgia Women of Achievement (GWA) recognizes women natives or residents of the U.S. state of Georgia for their significant achievements or statewide contributions. The concept was first proposed by Rosalynn Carter in 1988. The first induction ...
. The
Mary Gay House
The Mary Gay House is a historic house at 716 West Trinity Place in downtown Decatur, Georgia. It was the home of Mary Ann Harris Gay, who moved there with her mother and sister about 1850. She and her sister lived there during the American Ci ...
, her home during and after the Civil War, has been preserved in downtown Decatur. It is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
Biography
Mary Ann Gay was born to William and Mary (Stevens) Gay on March 18, 1829, in
Jones County, Georgia. Shortly after Mary Ann was born, her father died. Her newly widowed mother moved with her children back to her family near
Milledgeville, Georgia
Milledgeville is a city in and the county seat of Baldwin County in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is northeast of Macon and bordered on the east by the Oconee River. The rapid current of the river here made this an attractive location to buil ...
. They lived in the house of Mary Gay's grandfather, Thomas Stevens, a
planter and
slave owner. He was criticized in the
slave narrative ''A Slave Life in Georgia'' (1854) by
John Brown John Brown most often refers to:
*John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859
John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to:
Academia
* John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
, a man who had been enslaved by Stevens before escaping and settling in England.
Stevens also owned property around the state, including in
DeKalb County DeKalb County may refer to one of several counties in the United States, all of which were named for Baron Johan DeKalb:
* DeKalb County, Alabama
* DeKalb County, Georgia
* DeKalb County, Illinois
* DeKalb County, Indiana
* DeKalb County, Missouri
...
, where he became active in politics by 1829. In the 1830s, Gay and her mother moved to Decatur. There, Gay's mother married lawyer Joseph Stokes, whose clients included Gay's father and brothers. The family moved out to
Cassville, Georgia
Cassville is an unincorporated community in Bartow County in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was originally the county seat before the name was changed from Cass County. The seat was moved to Cartersville after General Sherman destroyed Cassville ...
, and Mary Stokes had two more children with Joseph: Thomas (Thomie) J. Stokes (b. 1837) and
Missouria Horton Stokes (b. 1838). Mary Stokes' father Thomas Stevens lived with them. By his bequest, Mary Gay was educated at a girls' school in Nashville.
When Stokes died in 1850, Gay's newly widowed mother moved with her three children to a house on Marshall Street in Decatur, Georgia. Gay lived in this house throughout Civil War. She published her first poetry collection anonymously in 1858, at age 29.
During the Civil War, Mary Gay was a supporter of the Confederacy and refused to leave her house when
Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
soldiers took over the area. Gen.
Kenner Garrard
Kenner Garrard (September 21, 1827 – May 15, 1879) was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. A member of one of Ohio's most prominent military families, he performed well at the Battle of Gettysburg, and then le ...
occupied her house at one point, and his troops camped in her yard. Her only brother, Thomas Stokes, served under Gen.
John Bell Hood in the
Confederate Army
The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...
and died in the
Battle of Franklin Battle of Franklin may refer to four battles of the American Civil War:
* Battle of Franklin (1864), a major battle fought November 30, 1864, at Franklin, Tennessee as part of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign
* Battle of Franklin (1863), a minor eng ...
in late 1864.
After the war, Gay worked to preserve Confederate battlefields and erect
Confederate monuments
In the United States, the public display of Confederate monuments, memorials and symbols has been and continues to be controversial. The following is a list of Confederate monuments and memorials that were established as public displays and symb ...
. She also helped raise funds for the construction of a new building for the local Baptist church in Decatur.
Gay also helped raise funds for the establishment of
McGavock Confederate Cemetery
The McGavock Confederate Cemetery is located in Franklin, Tennessee. It was established in June 1866 as a private cemetery on land donated by the McGavock planter family.
The nearly 1,500 Confederate soldiers buried there were casualties of the ...
to accommodate the reburial of the 1,750 Confederate soldiers who died at the Battle of Franklin, including her brother. The funds were enough to enclose the cemetery with an iron fence and gate, which was marked with a plaque with her name. She also successfully campaigned for a memorial to
Alexander H. Stephens
Alexander Hamilton Stephens (February 11, 1812 – March 4, 1883) was an American politician who served as the vice president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865, and later as the 50th governor of Georgia from 1882 until his death in 1 ...
at his grave at
Liberty Hall
Liberty Hall ( ga, Halla na Saoirse), in Dublin, Ireland, is the headquarters of the Services, Industrial, Professional, and Technical Union (SIPTU). Designed by Desmond Rea O'Kelly, it was completed in 1965. It was for a time the tallest b ...
.
Gay reprinted her book ''Prose and Poetry'' (1858) after the war and marketed it "aggressively" in order to support her family. The book came to the attention of
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
, who quoted it "with disdain" in Chapter 21 of ''
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (1876). He wrote that Gay's work was "after the school-girl pattern."
In 1892, Gay published ''Life in Dixie During the War'' based on her memories, her half-sister Missouria's journal, and letters from her half-brother Thomas. Covering the years from 1861 through 1865, it became her best-known work. It influenced Margaret Mitchell's novel ''Gone With the Wind'' (1936), with some scenes being drawn "directly from Gay's memoir".
Gay also wrote a novel, ''The Transplanted: A Story of Dixie Before the War'' (1907), with an introduction by Walter Neale, the New York publisher. It opens in the 1840s on a Mississippi
plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
owned by a man of Scots descent.
Historians have explored the important role of planter and middle-class women in creating the memory and history of the American Civil War. For instance, the
United Daughters of the Confederacy had organized, initially to raise funds to get the Confederate dead decently buried in cemeteries. They also raised money to erect monuments to the war and their dead. In addition, by the late 19th century, its leaders encouraged Southern women such as Gay to publish their memoirs and other writings about the war, in order to perpetuate the myth of the
Lost Cause of the Confederacy
The Lost Cause of the Confederacy (or simply Lost Cause) is an History of the United States, American pseudohistorical historical negationist, negationist mythology that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil Wa ...
, which denies that slavery was a central cause of the Civil War.
Gay never married. After the death of her sister Missouria in 1910, Gay began to suffer from
dementia
Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...
in her old age. She was committed to the
Georgia State Sanitarium
Georgia's state mental asylum located in Milledgeville, Georgia, now known as the Central State Hospital (CSH), has been the state's largest facility for treatment of mental illness and developmental disabilities. In continuous operation since ac ...
in 1915, where she died on November 21, 1918. She is buried in
Decatur Cemetery
The Decatur Cemetery is a historic graveyard within the City of Decatur, Georgia.
History
The Decatur Cemetery is the oldest burial ground in the Atlanta metropolitan area, and it is believed to have been used even before Decatur's 1823 incorp ...
.
Honors
In 1997 Gay was inducted into the
Georgia Women of Achievement Hall of Fame. Her home in Decatur has been preserved as the
Mary Gay House
The Mary Gay House is a historic house at 716 West Trinity Place in downtown Decatur, Georgia. It was the home of Mary Ann Harris Gay, who moved there with her mother and sister about 1850. She and her sister lived there during the American Ci ...
and is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
Works
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References
Notes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gay, Mary Ann Harris
1829 births
1918 deaths
American women poets
19th-century American women writers
People from Decatur, Georgia
People of Georgia (U.S. state) in the American Civil War
Writers from Georgia (U.S. state)
19th-century American poets
People from Jones County, Georgia