User:Agcraw9737/sandbox

Alice Thornton wrote three manuscripts in which she left to her oldest daughter. She was said to have written these manuscripts as a response to rumors about the timeliness of her daughter's marriage. Naly, her eldest daughter, was married three short months after the passing of her father. Alice Thornton was ridiculed for these actions, and the only way she saw fit to answer these allegations correctly was to write about them. The first manuscript was written chronologically, she began with her childhood and worked her way through her life until she reached the death of her husband. This piece answered things not only about her actions, but this also addressed her faith and the way she took care of her family and house hold. This piece was largely used to write her autobiography, The Autobiography of Mrs. Alice Thornton, of East Newton, Co. York. The second manuscript has been lost over time. However many have tried to guess and calculate what her writings would have entailed based upon the ending of the first manuscript and the beginning of the third manuscript. According to Raymond A. Anselment, a professor of English at the University of Connecticut, the second manuscript "recounts a large amount of the earlier family narrative". Large amounts of the information about this text is purely based on others ideas of the text. Within the third manuscript contains memories from her first year as a widow. As for many people in this situation, things become drastically different. Her life becomes more public and can draw attention to herself and her family. At this time, most of the decisions are made by the man, and without a man in the household her decisions become highly questioned by the people who live around them. The whole basis for creating these documents was to answer the questions the townspeople where throwing her way. This manuscript tied all three of the text together and gave a good conclusion to the life and times of Alice Thornton.