Abbott Hall Brisbane (December 4, 1804 – September 28, 1861) was a prominent South Carolinian whose accomplishments included an extensive military career, engineering work, a professorship, authorship of a major Roman Catholic inspirational novel, and eventually, in retirement, a slave-holding plantation owner before the U.S. Civil War.

[3] A researcher revisiting the issue over 170 years later attributes his conversion to his admiration of the Irish Catholics who served with him in the Seminole War.

Her report of their married life reveals a very affectionate and balanced relationship, with Adeline "calm and self-reliant as a man" and having the good spirits to lift Brisbane from depression.

"[1][3] However, a diocesan archivist wrote in 2002 that she had uncovered records indicating that Adeline E. White Brisbane took vows with the Ursulines after her 1870 return, becoming "Sister Borgia" until her death in 1872.

[1] In 1841, he traveled north to New York to hire Irish workers for the Flint & Ocmulgee Line in Savannah, Georgia, promising "good pay" of $2.25 per day.

To get it, he approached Bishops John Hughes (New York) and Ignatius A. Reynolds (Charleston) for loans, as well as support from the City of Savannah.

[dubious – discuss] They continued to try to raise money for the Flint & Ocmulgee Line, even from European investors, until returning to Charleston in 1847.

The project did not take place as planned, and at one point, the Brisbanes lacked even sufficient funds to pick up a postage-due letter which had been sent to offer them a loan.

[1] Brisbane and his wife converted to Catholicism after the death of their infant son, and in widowhood, Adeline moved into a convent and possibly took vows there.

Brisbane himself was extremely devout, and authored what on expert described as "the only Catholic [inspirational] novel from the deep South" in the first half of the 1800s.

The perfect society is to be brought about by a proper interaction of the powers of the state, the Church, and wealth and by the equivalence of the agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing interests.