Frances Anne Kemble

Frances Anne “Fanny” Kemble (1809–1893) was an English actress and writer from the celebrated Kemble theatrical family. She achieved early fame on the London stage and later toured the United States, where she married American lawyer and plantation owner Pierce Butler. Living on Butler’s Georgia plantations in 1838–39, she recorded her observations of slavery in a private journal. After separating from Butler, she supported herself through public readings and writing. Her *Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838–1839* (published 1863) became a notable anti-slavery document, alongside her widely read theatrical and travel journals.