Early Life
A native of Gloucester, Virginia, Seawell spent her early life at the family's plantation home, "The Shelter," which had been a hospital in the American Revolutionary War. She described her early formation as a " ... secluded life ... in the library of an old Virginia country house, and in a community where conditions more nearly resembled the eighteenth than the nineteenth century" (The Ladies' Battle 116).
Her father was a student of the Classics, who influenced her learning. She was not allowed to read a novel until she was 17, instead reading history, encyclopedias, William Shakespeare, and the Romantic poets. Her education was primarily informal at home, where she learned riding, dancing, and household management. In addition to these influences and her Tidewater surroundings, Seawell's seafaring uncle, Joseph Seawell, contributed to her future literary subjects.
Read more about this topic: Molly Elliot Seawell
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