Nicholas Marcellus Hentz, born in France, and Caroline Lee Hentz of Massachusetts, met and married in New England. He would become America’s first arachnologist and she the second-most-popular female author of the century after Harriet Beecher Stowe, whom they knew when they lived in Cincinnati.
After a disastrous event in Cincinnati, the jealous Nicholas moved her to Florence, Alabama, where they ran a school for girls. The years at Locust Dell Academy were followed by other schools in Tuscaloosa, Tuskegee, and Columbus, Georgia. Nicholas became an invalid and Caroline turned to writing novels to support the family. The plots featured the jealous husband and the innocent wife. Unexpectedly, her most famous novel was The Planter’s Northern Bride, a pro-slavery answer to Stowe’s famous Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
