What an amazing life she led! I can't imagine the hardships she endured. Really makes me think of all I take for granted in my life.

This is a good readalike for people who liked Letters of a woman homesteader (still one of my favorite audiobooks). Most people would be surprised at the timeline for settlement in many out-of-the-way places-- in this book, it's the rural South, but the situation is very similar to settlement in the couple counties out here: stump farming and homesteading a la Little house on the prairie lasted into the 1900s and WWI happened before electricity.

The writing isn't superb, and the memoirist contradicts herself a couple times, but we're reading it for her life experience, not necessarily the literary quality. Not a required purchase, but suggested. 3.5 stars.

It was hard for me to believe this story was written so long ago. Mary Hamilton must have been made of iron. She endured many hard trials. I would certainly recommend this book to history buffs.

Loved this book
So interesting
Highly recommend
Learned so much

Trials of the Earth is Mary Mann Hamilton's memoir about her hardscrabble life in America during the late 1800's.

She uses period speech to illuminate a life of struggle and hard work. If certain anachronistic and racially insensitive terms bother you, especially the casual use of the N-word, you may want to chose another memoir. It was shocking but I kept reminding myself that Mary was a product of her times.

On top of the constant struggle of putting food on the table and keeping a roof over her head, it seems like she was perpetually pregnant and her husband was an alcoholic.

But Mary lived up to the challenges, raised and buried children, nursed her husband through his hangovers and illnesses- she was a survivor. That is mainly what Trials of the Earth was to me- a survival story.

Recommended for readers who enjoy memoirs that read like historical fiction. Ability to tolerate the bleak role that women occupied in society in the late 1800's is a must.