Fanny Kemble - Sea Islands

Sea Islands

Fanny Kemble and the children accompanied Butler to Georgia during the winter of 1838-39, where they lived at the plantations at Butler and St. Simons islands, in conditions primitive compared to their house in Philadelphia. They were first at Butler Island for three months, then at St. Simons. Kemble was even more shocked by the living and working conditions of the slaves and their treatment at the hands of the managers. She tried to improve their conditions and complained to her husband about slavery, and the mixed-race slave children attributed to King, Jr. When she left the plantations in the spring of 1839, she and her husband were experiencing marital tensions. The historian Malcolm Bell has said there was spousal infidelity by both Kemble and her husband Butler. Butler threatened Kemble with no access to their daughters if she published any of her observations about the plantations.