On the page and on the screen, works like Gone With the Wind have captured the imaginations of millions with their depictions of genteel plantation life in the antebellum South. Now author Robin Spencer Lattimore takes readers into the real stories of culture, race, politics, and family behind these remnants of a past that has had such impact on the South and on America as a whole-and into the story of their preservation. A rich visual journey through several of the region's most historic homes and the lush, fertile lands that once surrounded them, this book also measures a splendid architectural legacy against the cruel realities that made it possible. Southern Plantations features numerous examples that have survived the ravages of time, tragedy, neglect, and decay and can still be explored today, opening a window to the past and showing us that it is not too late to understand the heritage that these estates represent.

Author Biography

Robin Lattimore is the author of several books on local and regional history. In 2008, Lattimore was appointed as an Official Rutherford County Historian by the Board of Commissioners. He currently serves as President of the Rutherford County Historical Society, Chairman of the Rutherford County Historic Preservation Commission, Chairman of the Rutherford County Library Board of Trustees, and as a board member of the Cliffside Historical Society. He was named the 2009-10 Historian of the Year by the North Carolina Society of Historians, and he is a recipient of the Willie Parker Peace NC History Book Award, the D.T. Smithwick Award for Journalism from the North Carolina Society of Historians, a First Place Writing Award from the North Carolina Baptist State Convention, and five writing awards from the NC Press Association. He and his work have been featured in Our State Magazine, UNC-TV, WRAL-TV and other local and regional media. Lattimore earned a Bachelor of Science in Historical and Cultural Research from Appalachian State University.