Synopsis "Molsey Blount: The Colonial First Lady of Tennessee"
As the winner of the 2016 North Carolina Society of Historians Book Award, this book documents a lifestyle in a day and time so different from our own. Molsey Blount: the Colonial First Lady of Tennessee is the biography of Mary "Molsey" Blount, the genteel wife of the political titan, Gov. William Blount. She struggled with loneliness, the deaths of two children, two other children raised by relatives, a near fatal carriage accident and the sudden death of her mother and husband, sixteen days apart. The full story of this remarkable woman was hidden in the shadows of her husband. Based on extensive research, her tragic, lonely, and untold story is written in vivid detail with rich insights into the role of women in the eighteenth century. Her losses in life taught her resourcefulness but her early death silenced her in history. Comments from the North Carolina Society of Historians: "...we get a peek into the life of a politician's wife during the late 1700's, early 1800's, and to feel her sense of loneliness due to his long absences, and her great sense of responsibility in taking care of many, children, a household and a social calendar." "Molsey's life has been chronicled by an astute historian who has a more seasoned and educated eye to not only see this 'first lady's' contributions to family and home, but to her community, state and country." "Her story lie dormant in his shadow until this author breathed new life into it in order to give Molsey a voice that will be heard now by many generations and substance to be revered."
