Varina, the Howells' oldest daughter, was born on May 26, 1826. Two sons, William and Jefferson, Jr., died, as did five of Varina's siblings, and a number of her close friends, such as Mary Chesnut, who passed away in 1886. As the wife of the president of the Confederacy, she lived in Richmond during the Civil War and admirably fulfilled her three primary roles as an affectionate spouse to a proud and sensitive husband, an attentive mother to five young children (two of . Intimate in its detailed observations of one woman's tragic life, and epic in its scope and power, Varina is a novel of an American war and its aftermath. 8th and G Streets NW On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused extensive wind and water damage to Beauvoir, which houses the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. In 1855, she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Margaret (18551909); followed by two sons, Jefferson, Jr., (18571878) and Joseph (18591864), during her husband's remaining tenure in Washington, D.C. English: Portrait of Varina Howell Davis by John Wood Dodge (1807-1893), 1849, watercolor on ivory. He was elected as President of the Confederate States of America by the new Confederate Congress. It is held at the museum at Beauvoir. The girl became known to the public as "the Daughter of the Confederacy;" stories about and likenesses of her were distributed throughout the Confederacy during the last year of the war to raise morale. And she mustered the courage to say what she truly thought about the War, and to say it in a newspaper in 1901, that the right side won the Civil War. Varina Howell Davis's diamond and emerald wedding ring, one of the few valuable possessions she was able to retain through years of poverty, was held by the Museum at Beauvoir and lost during the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. Check out our varina davis selection for the very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our shops. She rejoined her husband in Washington. Richmond Bread Riot In Richmond Bread Riot four, and Minerva Meredith, whom Varina Davis (the wife of President Davis) described as "tall, daring, Amazonian-looking," the crowd of more than 100 women armed with axes, knives, and other weapons took their grievances to Letcher on April 2. They will make Mr. Davis President of the Southern side. Go to Artist page. She instantly became the symbol of hope for the entire Confederate nation. He made all the financial decisions, and he gave her an allowance for household bills. He looks both at times; but I believe he is old, for from what I hear he is only two years younger than you are [the rumor was correct]. In his last years, Jefferson remained obsessed with the war. She met most of the major players in national politics, including Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Charles Sumner, as well as Presidents Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan. And the whole thing is bound to be a failure."[23]. They rejoiced in their children, and they had two more during the war, William, born in 1861 and Varina Anne, born in 1864; when their son Joseph died after falling off a balcony in 1864, the parents grieved together and comforted each other. There she helped him organize and write his memoir of the Confederacy, in part by her active encouragement. The fact is, he is the kind of person I should expect to rescue one from a mad dog at any risk, but to insist upon a stoical indifference to the fright afterward. She enjoyed a daily ride in a carriage through Central Park. 4. Varina was an excellent student, and she developed a lifelong love of reading. Varina Banks Howell Davis was the second wife of the politician Jefferson Davis, who became president of the Confederate States of America. She was known to have said that: the South did not have the material resources to win the war and white Southerners did not have the qualities necessary to win it; that her husband was unsuited for political life; that maybe women were not the inferior sex; and that perhaps it was a mistake to deny women the suffrage before the war. The centerpiece of the Museum is The White House of the Confederacy where Jefferson and Varina Davis lived with their family from 1861-1865. The early losses of all four of their sons caused enormous grief to both the Davises. He chose to settle in Natchez, an inland port on the Mississippi. Articles and a book on his confinement helped turn public opinion in his favor. In her opinion, he and his friends were too radical. Jefferson would have been better off serving in the military, she discerned. "Marriage of William B. Howell to Margaret L. Kempe, July 17, 1823, Adams County, Mississippi", Ancestry.com. Davis greeted the war with dread, supporting the Union but not slavery. Soon after their marriage, Davis's widowed and penniless sister, Amanda (Davis) Bradford, came to live on the Brierfield property along with her seven youngest children. Located at Davis Bend, Mississippi, Hurricane was 20 miles south of Vicksburg. She was a granddaughter of Richard Howell, Governor of New Jersey, 1793-1801. Her father objected to his being from "a prominent Yankee and abolitionist family" and her mother to his lack of money and being burdened by many debts. She could not adjust to her new role in the spotlight, where everything she said was scrutinized. and Forgotten: How Hollywood & Popular Art Shape What We Know About the Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008), 1-4. She arranged for Davis to use a cottage on the grounds of her plantation. Shop for varina wall art from the world's greatest living artists. Their first residence was a two-room cottage on the property and they started construction of a main house. Additionally, her brother-in-law Joseph Davis proved controlling, both of his brother, who was 23 years younger, and the even younger Varina - especially during her husband's absences. [9] Grelaud, a Protestant Huguenot, was a refugee from the French Revolution and had founded her school in the 1790s. In 1877 he was ill and nearly bankrupt. The SCV built barracks on the site, and housed thousands of veterans and their families. She did not support the Confederacy's position on slavery, and was ambivalent about the war. She referred to herself as one because of her strong family connections in both North and South. The main house has been restored and a museum built there, housing the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library. "She tried intermittently to do what was expected of her, but she never convinced people that her heart was in it, and her tenure as First Lady was for the most part a disaster," as the people picked up on her ambivalence. Born June 27 th, Varina Anne (nicknamed Winnie) soon became the family favorite and quite definitely of all the Davis siblings most closely matched her father in temperament. In 1890, she published a memoir of her husband, full of panegyrics about his military and political career. [1] She was the daughter of Colonel James Kempe (sometimes spelled Kemp), a Scots-Irish immigrant from Ulster who became a successful planter and major landowner in Virginia and Mississippi, and Margaret Graham, born in Prince William County. Varina Davis, wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, wrote this article describing how the Davis family spent the Christmas of 1864 in the Confederate White House. Note: According to the 1810 census for Prince William County, George Graham owned 24 slaves, more than many of his neighbors and a quantity that qualified him as a major planter of the period. He arrived there in 1877 without consulting his wife, but she had to follow him there from Memphis, just as she had to follow him to Montgomery and Richmond in 1861; he still made the major decisions in the relationship. During her stay, she met her host's much younger brother Jefferson Davis. Initially forbidden to have any contact with her husband, Davis worked tirelessly to secure his release. They enjoyed the busy life of the city. 0 We use MailChimp, a third party e-newsletter service. [citation needed]. She helped him finish his memoir, which appeared in 1881. [24] White residents of Richmond criticized Varina Davis freely; some described her appearance as resembling "a mulatto or an Indian 'squaw'. [2][3], After moving his family from Virginia to Mississippi, James Kempe also bought land in Louisiana, continuing to increase his holdings and productive capacity. She responded that she did, which was not really true. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. An Exh. He was born on 3 June 1808 in Fairview, Kentucky to parents Samuel Emory and Jane . She was called 'a true daughter of the Confederacy'. There is a city in Virginia . 2652", "Mrs. Jefferson Davis Dead at the Majestic", "Jewels embellish Varina Davis' sad tale", Jefferson Davis, Ex-President of the Confederate States of America: A Memoir, by His Wife, https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/6124, A stop on the Varina Davis trail route - 181 Highway 215 South, Happy Valley, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Varina_Davis&oldid=1141743480. William owned several house slaves, but he never bought a plantation. The Arts Council Gallery and Knoedler Galleries, London and New York, 1960: 34-35, pl. Varina Davis was put under the guardianship of Joseph Davis, whom she had come to dislike intensely. After the war she became a writer, completing her husband's memoir, and writing articles and eventually a regular column for Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper, the New York . The cover of Charles Frazier's Varina: A Novel identifies its author as the "bestselling author of Cold Mountain."When Cold Mountain, his first Civil War novel, appeared in 1997, it stayed on the New York Times list for over a year and won him the National Book Award. In her late seventies, Varina's health began to deteriorate. [citation needed], In the postwar years of reconciliation, Davis became friends with Julia Dent Grant, the widow of former general and president Ulysses S. Grant, who had been among the most hated men in the South. She made some unorthodox public statements, observing that woman suffrage might be a good idea, although she did not formally endorse the cause. The earliest years of her life saw both the final collapse of Richmond and the Confederate government and the subsequent imprisonment of Jefferson Davis at Old Point Comfort. Democratic President Franklin Pierce appointed him to serve as Secretary of War from 1853 to 1857, and in 1857, he re-entered the United States Senate. William inherited little money and used family connections to become a clerk in the Bank of the United States. She followed Washington social customs, hosting large public receptions and small private dinners. After working as an attorney, Roger Pryor was appointed as a judge. Their wives developed a strong respect, as well. She solicited short articles from her for her husband's newspaper, the New York World. Her neighbor Anne Grant, a Quaker and merchant's wife, became a lifelong friend. [citation needed] Davis died at age 80 of double pneumonia in her room at the Hotel Majestic on October 16, 1906. Among them were that "slaves were human beings with their frailties" and that "everyone was a 'half breed' of one kind or another." As federal soldiers called out for them to surrender, Jefferson tried to escape. Before her death, she had written a letter defending her right to live in New York City, and she gave it to a friend, asking that it be made public after she passed away. She agreed to conform to her husband's wishes, so the marriage stabilized on his terms. Varina Davis inherited the Beauvoir plantation.[28]. It's 1865 once again (and perhaps it always is in the American South, Frazier hints), yet this time our tour guide through desolation and defeat is Varina Howell Davis, whom Frazier refers to. During the Pierce Administration, Davis was appointed to the post of Secretary of War. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006. After the war he was imprisoned for two years and indicted for treason but was never tried. Varina Anne Davis (June 27, 1864 - September 18, 1898) was an American author who is best known as the youngest daughter of President Jefferson Davis of the Confederate States of America and Varina (Howell) Davis. Society there was fully bipartisan, and she was expected to entertain on a regular basis. Davis was unemployed for most of the years after the war. The couple spent most of their time together in Richmond, so they wrote few letters to each other, compared to the years before 1861 and after 1865. Desperate for money, Jefferson moved to coastal Mississippi, where an aging widow, Sarah Dorsey, offered him her home, Beauvoir, evidently out of pity. So Winnie remained with her mother, leaving the city to appear at Confederate events. Varina Anne Banks Howell Davis (May 7, 1826 October 16, 1906) was the only First Lady of the Confederate States of America, and the longtime second wife of President Jefferson Davis. Ultimately, the book is a portrait of a woman who comes to realize that complicity carries consequences. [citation needed], In 1843, at age 17, Howell was invited to spend the Christmas season at Hurricane Plantation, the 5,000 acres (20km2) property of family friend Joseph Davis. [8] Her wealthy maternal relatives intervened to redeem the family's property. Her own family grew, as she gave birth in 1852 to Samuel, the first of six children, and she delighted in her offspring. London, 1963: 43, fig. She was interred with full honors by Confederate veterans at Hollywood Cemetery and was buried adjacent to the tombs of her husband and their daughter Winnie.[33].