Join author and lecturer at SMU Vicki Tongate for a discussion of the focus of her new book, Lucy Pier Stevens. Stevens was a woman from Ohio who became stuck in Texas while visiting family at the outbreak of the Civil War.

Articulate, educated, and a keen observer, Stevens took note of seemingly everything in her diary—the weather, illnesses, food shortages, parties, church attendance, chores, schools, childbirth, death, the family’s slaves, and political and military news. Her writings give us a unique perspective of daily life in Texas during the war.