Eliza Frances Andrews

{{short description|American writer, botanist, and teacher}} {{Infobox writer  | image = Eliza Frances Andrews.jpg | imagesize = 210px | caption = Photograph of Andrews, 1865 | birth_date = {{birth date|1840|8|10}} | birth_place = [[Washington, Georgia]], United States | death_date = {{death date and age|1931|1|21|1840|8|10}} | death_place = [[Rome, Georgia]], United States | notableworks = ''A Family Secret'' (1876) ''A Mere Adventurer'' (1879) ''Wartime Journal of a Georgia Girl: 1864-65'' (1908) ''Botany All the Year Round'' (1903) ''Practical Botany'' (1911) | spouse = | children = | parents = Garnett Andrews Annulet Ball Andrews | relatives = }}

'''Eliza Frances Andrews''' (August 10, 1840 - January 21, 1931) was a popular American writer of the [[Gilded Age]]. Her shorter works were published in popular magazines and papers, including the ''[[New York World]]'' and ''[[Godey's Lady's Book]]''.<ref name="Cook, Cita 2000">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Cook |first=Cita |title=Andrews, Eliza Frances |date=February 2000 |encyclopedia=American National Biography Online |url=http://www.anb.org.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/articles/16/16-02360.html|access-date=20 May 2014}}</ref> Her longer works include ''[[The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl]]'' (1908) and two [[botany]] textbooks.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kaufman |first=Janet E. |contribution=Andrews, Eliza Frances |editor-last=Benbow-Pfalzgraf|editor-first=Taryn|title=American women writers : a critical reference guide; from colonial times to the present|url=https://archive.org/details/americanwomenwri00benb |url-access=limited |date=2000|publisher=St. James Press|location=Detroit|isbn=1558624333|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanwomenwri00benb/page/n70 27]–28|edition=2nd}}</ref>

Andrews gained fame in the fields of literature, education, and science, and had success both as an essayist and a novelist.<ref name="Women"/> Financial difficulties led her to begin teaching after the deaths of her parents, though she continued to publish her writing. In her retirement, she published two textbooks on botany entitled ''Botany All the Year Round'' and ''Practical Botany'',<ref name="Women"/> the latter of which became popular in Europe and was translated for schools in France.<ref name=practical />

==Biography==

===Early life=== Eliza Frances "Fanny" Andrews was born on August 10, 1840, in [[Washington, Georgia]], the second daughter of Annulet Ball and Garnett Andrews, a judge in [[Georgia Superior Courts|Georgia's Superior Courts]].<ref name="History">{{cite encyclopedia |first=Rushing |last=S. Kittrell |title=Eliza Frances Andrews (1840-1931) |encyclopedia=New Georgia Encyclopedia |date=10 January 2014 |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2500 |access-date=20 May 2014 |archive-date=14 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014002635/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2500 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Her father was a lawyer, judge, and plantation owner, possessing around two hundred [[Slavery in the United States|enslaved people]]. Andrews grew up on the family estate, Haywood, the name of which she would later use in a [[pseudonym]], "Elzey Hay".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Coleman|first1=Kenneth|last2=Gurr|first2=Charles Stephen|title=Dictionary of Georgia Biography|date=1983|publisher=University of Georgia Press|location=Athens|page=29|chapter=Andrews, Eliza Frances}}</ref> attended the local Ladies' Seminary school, and later graduated among the first class of students from [[LaGrange College|LaGrange Female College]] in 1857.<ref name="Women">{{cite web|title=Andrews, Eliza Frances (Fanny)|url=http://www.georgiawomen.org/2010/09/andrews-eliza-frances-fanny/|work=Georgia Women of Achievement|date=4 May 2014|access-date=20 May 2014|archive-date=2 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110302125956/http://www.georgiawomen.org/2010/09/andrews-eliza-frances-fanny/|url-status=dead}}</ref> She was well-versed in literature, music, and the arts, and was conversant in both French and Latin.<ref name="History"/> Upon graduating, Andrews returned home to live with her father. Around this time Southern states began to [[Secession in the United States|secede from the Union]]. Though her father was outspoken against secession, three of Andrews' brothers enlisted in the [[Confederate States Army]]. Andrews and her sisters also supported the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]].<ref name="History"/>

During the [[American Civil War]], Andrews and her sister were sent to live with their older sister in southwest Georgia. Andrews recorded both her journey and stay in a journal that was later published under the title ''Wartime Journal of a Georgia Girl: 1864-65''.<ref name="History"/> Though not published until 1908, the diary effectively began her career as a writer. Later in 1865, at her father's suggestion, Andrews submitted "A Romance of Robbery," her first published piece, to the ''New York World''.<ref name="Women"/> It described the treatment of southerners by the [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]] administrators who occupied the South after the end of the war.<ref name=fruitful /> She wrote many articles for a variety of publications on topics such as women's fashion during the war, and a piece on [[Catherine Littlefield Greene]], a noted supporter of [[Eli Whitney|Eli Whitney's]] [[cotton gin]].<ref name="History"/>

===Teaching career=== Garnett Andrews died in 1873, leaving his family in a difficult financial position. The family sold the plantation and that required Fanny Andrews to seek paid work.<ref name="Women"/> She briefly edited the ''[[Washington Gazette]]'' but when the editor discovered she was a woman, she was fired. She then became principal at the Girl's High School in [[Yazoo, Mississippi]], where she remained for seven years.<ref name="History"/> She resigned the position in the early 1880s in order to recuperate from a serious illness. Andrews then returned to Washington to become the principal at her former seminary school. She received an honorary Master of Arts degree from [[Wesleyan College|Wesleyan Female College]] in [[Macon, Georgia]] in 1882.<ref name="Women"/> In 1885 she moved to Macon, where she worked as a professor of French and literature from 1886 to 1896.<ref>The Georgia Historical Quarterly, March 21, 1986</ref> She also worked as a school librarian during this time period. She returned once again to Washington and devoted herself full-time to lecturing and writing.<ref name="History"/>

==Personal beliefs==

===Women in society=== Andrews’ first novel, ''A Family Secret'' (1876),<ref name="Women"/> paints a vivid image of the role of women in the post war South. She remarks upon the misery inherent in marrying for money and writes at one point "Oh, the slavery it is to be a woman and not a fool." At the same time, she believed that the domestic wife and mother was the only acceptable role for women in Southern society, and she considered teaching "a mental tread-mill, a dull road traveled over and over requiring only patience."<ref name=fruitful>{{cite journal|last=Ford|first=Charlotte A.|title=Eliza Frances Andrews: A Fruitful Life of Toil|journal=The Georgia Historical Quarterly|date=Spring 2005|volume=89|issue=1|pages=25–56|jstor=40584807}}</ref>{{rp|32}} As she observed in the introduction to her ''Wartime Journal'' that “In the lifetime of a single generation the people of the South have been called upon to pass through changes that the rest of the world has taken centuries to accomplish”<ref>{{cite book|last1=Andrews|first1=Eliza Frances|title=The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865|url=https://archive.org/details/wartimejournalof5454andr|date=1908|publisher=D. Appleton and Company|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/wartimejournalof5454andr/page/n14 1]}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ford|first1=Charlotte A.|title=Eliza Frances Andrews: A Fruitful Life of Toil|journal=Georgia Historical Quarterly|date=2005|volume=89|issue=1|pages=25–56|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=17968572&site=eds-live&scope=site|access-date=19 February 2018}}</ref> [[File:Eliza Frances Andrews from American Women, 1897.jpg|thumb|Andrews in 1897]]

===Post civil-war===

The influences of the [[antebellum South|antebellum]] and wartime South, which Andrews describes as a "unique society," are evident in her work throughout her life. Between the [[Confederate Surrender|Confederate surrender]] in April 1865 and the end of the 1860s, Andrews wrote for several local and national magazines and newspapers, including the ''New York World'' and ''[[Scott's Monthly]]'', providing commentary on issues the South faced during the early years of [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]]; she expressed concerns about [[universal male suffrage]] due to what she viewed as African Americans' ignorance of informed voting practices.<ref name="fruitful" />{{rp|29–31}} Her views regarding black Americans reflect contemporary Southern fears of [[Black suffrage in the United States|black enfranchisement]].

Andrew's essays and novels about women's roles provide strong, often conflicting opinions about ideal femininity, reflecting the contrast in her commitments to both Southern idealism and her own professional independence. Her early works in the late 1860s argued against [[Women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage]], as women's position under the protection of men granted them social privileges, such as perceived superior moral integrity, that they would forfeit if given the right to vote.<ref name="fruitful" />{{rp|32–33}} These ideas contrast with her stated belief that women have similar governing potential to men and were capable of advancing society through private, professional work as teachers, doctors, and merchants.<ref name="fruitful" />{{rp|32}}

===Politics and race=== From 1899 to 1918, Andrews proclaimed herself a [[Socialism|socialist]] and wrote an article for the ''[[International Socialist Review (1900)|International Socialist Review]]'' concerning socialism; however, she supported strict [[racial separation]] that mandated "the black man to improve himself without interfering in the white man's civilization."<ref name="fruitful" />{{rp|50}} Her views were seen through her writings on the [[White supremacy|superiority of the white race]] over the black and boasts that the [[Color line (racism)|color line]] had been preserved in her home town with the help of the [[Ku Klux Klan]].

===Botanist=== While teaching at [[Wesleyan College|Wesleyan Female College]] in [[Macon, GA]], Charlotte Ford cites Andrews as having her first formal contact with botany through working with the botany professor, [[Charles Haskins Townsend|Charles Townsend]], although her interest may have sparked from her childhood days exploring the forest around Haywood.<ref name="Cook, Cita 2000" /><ref name=practical>{{cite journal|last=Ford|first=Charlotte A.|title=Eliza Frances Andrews, Practical Botanist, 1840-1931|journal=The Georgia Historical Quarterly|date=Spring 1986|volume=70|issue=1|pages=63–80|jstor=40581467}}</ref>{{rp|63,65}} Andrews was an amateur botanist, collecting samples and conducting minor research whenever she could find the time.<ref name=practical/>{{rp|67–68}} During her botanical career, Andrews became a strong proponent of [[Conservationism|conservation]], using her published pieces to criticize turpentine distillers and developers for destroying woodlands.<ref name=practical/>{{rp|64}} Her first textbook, ''Botany All the Year Round'' (1903) was aimed at a high school audience, particularly those in rural schools. It contained activities and labs aimed at attracting these schools to a low-budget scientific discipline that utilized the natural world around them, instead of pricey experimental materials.<ref name=practical/>{{rp|69}} ''A Practical Course in Botany'', her second textbook, however, was aimed at a college and university audience and stressed the relationship between botany and more practical fields such as agriculture and economics.<ref name=practical/>{{rp|71}} The book was internationally acclaimed and was translated for use in French schools.<ref name="Cook, Cita 2000"/><ref name=practical /> Andrews was also nominated to be a member of the Italian International Academy of Science, although she was unable to travel to [[Naples, Italy|Naples]] and accept the honor.

Andrews wrote her last article, on the [[white oak]], in 1926.<ref name="Women"/>

After her death, Andrews bequeathed the royalties from her books to the city of [[Rome, GA|Rome, Georgia]] for a municipal forest reserve, although the city eventually turned the money back over to her estate due to a lack of funds, likely related to the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]].<ref name=practical/>{{rp|77–78}} She also donated more than 3,000 plant specimens from her personal collection to the [[Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries|Alabama Department of Agriculture]].<ref name="Women" />

Andrews died in Rome, GA on January 21, 1931, at the age of ninety.<ref name="Cook, Cita 2000"/> She is buried in the family plot in Resthaven Cemetery,<ref name="Women"/> in [[Washington, GA]].<ref name="History"/>

==Gallery== <gallery> File:Judge Garnett Andrews 1827.jpg|Eliza's father Judge Garnett Andrews 1827 File:Annulet Andrews 1827.jpg|Eliza's mother Annulet Andrews, 1827 File:Metta Andrews 1872.jpg|Eliza's younger sister Metta Andrews, 1872 File:Haywood House.jpg|Haywood Plantation, where Eliza was born </gallery>

==Bibliography== *''[[The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl]], 1864-1865.'' *''Journal of a Georgia Women, 1870-1872''. *''A Family Secret'' (novel) *''Prince Hal: Or, The Romance of a Rich Young Man'' *''Botany All the Year Round'' *''A Practical Course in Botany''

==References== {{Reflist}} *Ohles, John F. ''Biographical Dictionary of American Educators, Vol. 1''. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1978.

==External links== {{wikisource|works=or}} {{commons category}} *[http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/andrews/menu.html The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865.] New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1908. *Tufts University, Boston, ''The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865.'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2001.05.0002%3Achapter%3D33 perseus.tufts.edu] * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Eliza Frances Andrews}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrews, Eliza Frances}} [[Category:19th-century American novelists]] [[Category:Educators from Mississippi]] [[Category:American women botanists]] [[Category:American botanical writers]] [[Category:Novelists from Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:1840 births]] [[Category:1931 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century American women scientists]] [[Category:19th-century American botanists]] [[Category:19th-century American women biologists]] [[Category:American women essayists]] [[Category:American women science writers]] [[Category:19th-century American essayists]] [[Category:Ohio Wesleyan University faculty]] [[Category:American anti-suffragists]] [[Category:19th-century American women novelists]]