This is the story of Elizabeth Lowrey Morgan, born in Tennessee before the Civil War, and the discovery of 35 poems and numerous letters and stories by and about her that are compiled here for the first time. She was considered the “poet laureate of the Cherokee Nation,” according to one newspaper, and was proud of her Cherokee heritage.
Granddaughter of famous Morgan military men, she was also the granddaughter of a Cherokee woman who married Joseph Sevier. He was the son of the first governor of Tennessee John Sevier--a notorious fighter who destroyed indigenous peoples’ culture and drove them from their land for immigrants.
Elizabeth and her sisters were educated in New England and Knoxville schools for girls, studying the Bible and the classics, as her list of books taken from her house by the Union Army shows. It’s clear she studied classic Greek and Roman literature and poetry as well as Shakespeare and other classic authors.
The book has extensive footnotes, plenty of drama, and a reading and discussion guide in the appendix.