Actress and writer Fannie Kemble fell in love with Pierce Manning in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1834. It would be her experiences on the notorious Butler Plantation on Butler Island (Georgia coast south of Darien) that the actress detailed in her "Journal of a Residence On A Georgia Plantation."

Fannie was young, beautiful and intelligent, so it was no wonder tha Pierce Butler fell in love with her. Stealing her away from acting during an American tour, Pierce brought her to coastal Georgia in 1839-40 where she witnessed slavery on a rice plantation on a first-hand basis. During her marriage she wrote, occasionally penning under the name Mrs. F. Kemble Butler.

After she left Pierce Butler 1846 she began work on "Journal of a Residence On A Georgia Plantation," a work that brought the horrors of slavery into the light. It is considered to be a major piece of pro-abolition literature that inspired many later works by Americans.

Although separated since 1846, Kemble and Butler finalized a divorce in 1849.

Her nickname is frequently misspelled as "Fanny."