Introduction

Biography

Caroline was the daugh­ter of Bos­ton ship­wright Sam­uel How­ard (one of the In­di­ans from the 1773 Bos­ton Tea Par­ty), and wife of Sam­uel Gil­man (mar­ried 1819)

Despite a poor for­mal ed­uc­at­ion, she taught her­self and was grant­ed ac­cess to the per­son­al lib­ra­ry of her neigh­bor, Gov­er­nor El­bridge Ger­ry (from whose name comes the term ger­ry­man­der­ing).

After mar­riage, she and her hus­band moved to Charles­ton, South Ca­ro­li­na.

In 1832, she found­ed The Rose Bud, one of the first Am­er­ican week­lies for young peo­ple. It was re­named The Sou­thern Rose Bud in 1833, The Sou­thern Rose in 1835, and ceased pub­li­ca­tion in 1839.

After her hus­band’s death in 1858, she stayed in Charles­ton dur­ing the Am­er­ican ci­vil war, and lat­er lived in Cam­bridge, Mas­sa­chu­setts, then in Ti­ver­ton, Long Is­land, New York.

Works

Howard wrote sev­er­al tales, ball­ads, and po­ems. Her other works include:

• Recollections of a New Eng­land House­keep­er, 1835
• Recollections of a Sou­thern Ma­tron, 1836
• Poetry of Tra­vel­ing in the Unit­ed States, 1838
• The Let­ters of Eli­za Wil­kin­son, Dur­ing the In­va­sion and Pos­ses­sion of Charles­town by the Brit­ish in the Re­vo­lu­tion­a­ry War (ed­it­or), 1839
• Tales and Ball­ads, 1839
• Ruth Ray­mond, 1840
• Stories and Po­ems for Child­ren, 1845
• Oracles from the Po­ets, 1845
• The Si­byl, 1848
• Verses of a Life Time, 1849
• The Rose-Bud Wreath, 1851
• Oracles for Youth, 1853
• Jephthah’s Rash Vow
• Poems and Sto­ries by a Mo­ther and Daugh­ter, with her daugh­ter, Mrs. Ca­ro­line H. Jer­vey, 1872