Abstract:
This study concerns itself with a set of diaries
kept wholly in accord with the traditional concept of
such documents, and seeks to set forth as in a mirror,
the reflected life of a community in Sumter County,
Alabama, through the years 1839 to 1865. The diary
data is complete for the period with the exception
of the years 1857-1859. It is an attempt to set forth
the typical group patterns of an early American Community
as revealed through an analytical study of a naive document--
the diaries or John Knox Elliott. The emphasis
in the study will not be upon the writer of the diaries
as a man, but rather upon his relationships in social
groups as revealed through his own account of his individual
behavior. In order to arrive at typical patterns
of group relationships, efforts will be made to examine
aspects of group classification, community solidarity,
and personality organization.
