Shades Of Gray

The Clay and McAllister Families of Bryan County, Georgia During the Plantation Years (ca. 1760-1888)

Plot

This is the compelling story of two families, linked by marriage, during the heyday of the Rice Kingdom in tidewater Georgia and the difficulties of the Civil War and its aftermath. The book is set forth in three parts: background of the families together with an explanation of rice and cotton production; Civil War letters and journals; and a post Civil War narrative. The autobiographical narrative is entitled Reminiscences which picks up the family story and takes the reader through the Clay family's last attempts to plant rice on the plantation. It is a delightful and humorous account of a young boy coming of age (Thomas Savage Clay, M.D.) in the country during the lean years of the Reconstruction. Shades of Gray also includes maps of the plantation areas on the endpapers, lists of slave records, copy of estate tax returns, chapter notes, bibliography and index.