[2] Alfred Oden Stuart was a widower with eleven children;[1] he died in 1883 and she returned to New Orleans.

[4] She was also related to Louisiana governors Isaac Johnson and Robert Wickliffe; another cousin was the state's first lady as the wife of Murphy J.

She sold a second story to Harpers New Monthly Magazine shortly thereafter; in the early 1890s she moved to New York City.

[1] Between 1891 and 1897 she produced "20 books, short stories, sketches, and reprinted verses she had originally published in magazines".

[2] Stuart has been characterized as belonging to the school of "American local color writing that emphasizes regional characteristics in landscape, way of life, and language.

"[1] Stuart's treatment of blacks forms a significant portion of her corpus and, if potentially troublesome today, "contemporary critics acclaimed her as providing an authentic representation of African Americans.