Born into a prominent theatrical family, Frances Kemble was a famous British stage actress and author of the early and mid-nineteenth century. Popular for her interpretation of Shakespeare’s Juliet, she played all the major female roles for the stage. Her greatest contribution is considered by many to be journals she kept detailing the condition and treatment of American slaves in the State of Georgia. Though she spent most of her life in England, Kemble traveled with her father to the United States in 1833 for a theatrical tour.

While there she began to keep a travel journal. One year later she retired from the stage and married American Pierce Butler, who was a descendant of a Founding Father of the same name, and heir to enormous plantations in Georgia. By the time the couple’s two daughters were born, Butler inherited his grandfather’s property and the family traveled to Georgia’s sea islands to inspect the plantations there. Frances maintained a careful record of what she saw and experienced during that winter of 1838-39. She was appalled by the living conditions of the slaves and stunned by the way they were treated. She began to advocate for improvements and complained to her husband, not only about his own human property but also about slavery in general. Her arguments were unconvincing and led to marital strife between the two. The couple divorced in 1849, despite her knowledge of divorce law at the time. Most women were not granted custody of their children, but in Kemble’s case the divorce was especially harsh since she did not see her daughters again until they turned twenty-one.

Neither Kemble nor Butler remarried. Due more to financial difficulties than an interest in acting, Kemble returned to the stage. Later she gained renown as a reader of Shakespeare, touring around the United States. Meanwhile, Kemble’s diary was being circulated among abolitionists and was soon published in England and after the Civil War began, in the United States. She remained staunchly opposed to slavery and spoke out boldly against it. As she wrote in Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839, "I have sometimes been haunted with the idea that it was an imperative duty. Knowing what I know, and having seen what I have seen, to do all that lies in my power to show the dangers and evils of this frightful institution." Kemble returned to England in 1877 and became a popular figure in London. She became a good friend of author Henry James. She continued to write and scholars today regard her journals, plays, and memoirs as valuable glimpses into the era in which she lived.