 The couple had a total of five children, though their oldest son died when he was only two years old.While in Florence, Caroline spent most of her time caring for the couples’ four children.Her writing began to diminish over this period of time, though she managed to write some poetry and kept a diary that inspired the “letters, deathbed confession, and other lamentations that are hallmarks of her novels.” After living in Florence for nine years (where they rented two slaves, one of them a woman who helped her with her chores), the family began another school in Tuscaloosa in 1843.