The centerpiece of the Museum is The White House of the Confederacy where Jefferson and Varina Davis lived with their family from 1861-1865. Her father, William B. Howell, was a native of New Jersey, and his father, Richard, was a distinguished Revolutionary War veteran who became governor of the state in the 1790s. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Although she had glossy hair and big dark eyes, she was tall and slim with an olive complexion, which was considered unattractive in the nineteenth century. Washington, DC 20001, Open 7 days a week The Davises returned to his plantation, Brierfield, several times a year. The couple had long periods of separation from early in their marriage, first as Jefferson Davis gave campaign speeches and "politicked" (or campaigned) for himself and for other Democratic candidates in the elections of 1846. [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. In 1891, Varina and Winnie moved to New York City. They initially disapproved of him due to the many differences in background, age, and politics. In late March, Jefferson insisted that his wife and children should leave for the Florida coast, where they would then depart for England. The Arts Council Gallery and Knoedler Galleries, London and New York, 1960: 34-35, pl. (Due to her husband's influence, her father William Howell received several low-level appointments in the Confederate bureaucracy which helped support him.) He returned to the US for this work. She was recruited by Kate (Davis) Pulitzer, a purportedly distant cousin of Varinas husband and wife of publisher Joseph Pulitzer, to write articles and eventually a regular column for the New York World. After Jefferson and Varina settled at his plantation, Brierfield, in Warren County, Mississippi, the newlyweds had some heated conflicts about money, the in-laws, and his absences from home. 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 . [citation needed] Davis died at age 80 of double pneumonia in her room at the Hotel Majestic on October 16, 1906. Her wealthy planter family had moved to Mississippi before 1816. Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia. Varina Davis was put under the guardianship of Joseph Davis, whom she had come to dislike intensely. [12] The Davises lived in Washington, DC for most of the next fifteen years before the American Civil War, which gave Varina Howell Davis a broader outlook than many Southerners. Ultimately, the book is a portrait of a woman who comes to realize that complicity carries consequences. In her memoir, Varina Howell Davis wrote that her mother was concerned about Jefferson Davis's excessive devotion to his relatives (particularly his older brother Joseph, who had largely raised him and upon whom he was financially dependent) and his near worship of his deceased first wife. Jefferson Davis was elected in 1846 to the U.S. House of Representatives and Varina accompanied him to Washington, D.C., which she loved. Jefferson sometimes deviated from his route to check on his wife and children, and they were all together when Union forces caught them at a roadside camp in Georgia in May 1865. There is little to suggest that the elderly Jefferson Davis . Her correspondence with her husband during this time demonstrated her growing discontent, with which Jefferson was not particularly sympathetic. In the Quaker city, she often visited her Howell kinfolk, and she became fond of them all. She was later described as tall and thin, with an olive complexion attributed to Welsh ancestors. Davis was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane (Cook) Davis. She was called 'a true daughter of the Confederacy'. In 1877 he was ill and nearly bankrupt. She had practical reasons for this decision, which she spent the rest of her life explaining: Jefferson's estate did not leave her much money, and she had to work for a living. The family survived on the charity of relatives and friends. She cared for him when he was sick, which was often, since he tended to fall ill under stress. She was intelligent and better educated than many of her peers, which led to tensions with Southern expectations for women. Varina Davis (Howell), First Lad. She could not adjust to her new role in the spotlight, where everything she said was scrutinized. Although she was born in Richmond in 1864, she knew little of the South or the rest of her native country. Varina Davis, the First Lady of the Confederacy, had a remarkably contentious relationship with southerners after her husband's death in 1889. . They will make Mr. Davis President of the Southern side. If she ever considered divorce, she would have discovered that the Mississippi legal system made it very difficult, and she knew it still had a terrible stigma, especially for women. The Howell family home, furnishings and slaves were seized by creditors to be sold at public auction. The Howells ultimately consented to the courtship, and the couple became engaged shortly thereafter. She tried to raise awareness of and sympathy for what she perceived as his unjust incarceration. She was a granddaughter of Richard Howell, Governor of New Jersey, 1793-1801. During this period, Davis exchanged passionate letters with Virginia Clay for three years and is believed to have loved her. Varina Davis wrote many articles for the newspaper, and Winnie Davis published several novels. 3D printing settings Height layers suggestion: 150 - 200 Micron [citation needed], She was active socially until poor health in her final years forced her retirement from work and any sort of public life. Society there was fully bipartisan, and she was expected to entertain on a regular basis. Tall and thin, with an olive complexion like her mother, she was a reader like her mother and even better educated. She had classmates from all over the country, some of whom became her good friends. Widowed in 1889, Davis moved to New York City with her youngest daughter Winnie in 1891 to work at writing. She opposed the abolitionist movement, and she personally benefited from slavery, for her husband's plantation paid for her lovely clothes, the nice houses, and the expensive china. [26] When Winnie Davis completed her education, she joined her parents at Beauvoir. And the whole thing is bound to be a failure."[23]. [citation needed]. Their wedding was planned as a grand affair to be held at Hurricane Plantation during Christmas of 1844, but the wedding and engagement were cancelled shortly beforehand, for unknown reasons. 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]. She had spent most of her youth in boarding school in Germany, and she spoke fluent German and French. With the witty young Irishman, she had a most enjoyable talk about books. jimin rainbow hair butter; mcclure v evicore settlement There he met and married Margaret Louisa Kempe (18061867), born in Prince William County, Virginia. She rejoined her husband in Washington. They both suffered; Pierce became dependent on alcohol and Jane Appleton Pierce had health problems, including depression. The devastated mother was overcome, and she grieved for Winnie for a long time. Clay was the wife of their friend, former senator Clement Clay, a fellow political prisoner at Fort Monroe. Both of her grandfathers, and her father, helped create the Union through their military service, and she had many Yankee kinfolk. 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. "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. The nickname she earned, Daughter of the Confederacy, was misleading. Varina Davis tells her husband, Confederate president Jefferson Davis, that if the Union wins the Civil War, then it will have been God's will. 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. In the late 20th century, his citizenship was posthumously restored. During the conflict, Yankee newspapers claimed that he had fathered several children out of wedlock, and in 1871, the national press reported he had a sexual encounter with an unidentified woman on a train. Attractive, well-preserved, and charming, Mrs. Clay had been an enthusiastic supporter of the Confederacy, and for that reason alone, she probably would have made Jefferson a better wife. It was an example of what she would later call interference from the Davis family in her life with her husband. Jefferson's political career flourished, especially after his service in the Mexican War in 1846-1848. )[citation needed], While at school in Philadelphia, Varina got to know many of her northern Howell relatives; she carried on a lifelong correspondence with some, and called herself a "half-breed" for her connections in both regions. Contrary to stereotype, politicians' wives do not always agree with their husbands. Born and raised in the South and educated in Philadelphia, she had family on both sides of the conflict and unconventional views for a woman in her public role. When the war ended, the Davises fled South seeking to escape to Europe. Pro-slavery but also pro-Union, Varina Davis was inhibited by her role as Confederate First Lady and unable to reveal her true convictions. Shop for varina wall art from the world's greatest living artists. One Richmond journal chose to remind the public of her wartime statements that she missed Washington. 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. 8th and G Streets NW Jefferson was arrested and taken to Fort Monroe, Virginia, and she was put under house arrest in Savannah, Georgia. Jefferson Davis resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1861 when Mississippi seceded. Media. Varina responded to both allegations with total silence; she said nothing about them in writing, at any time. He died in. Explore the museum's diverse and wide-ranging exhibitions. 1808 - 1889) was an American politician who is best known as the President of the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861-1865). In 1901, she said something even more startling. Once situated in Montgomery, Varina was quickly consumed by heavy responsibilities. Later that summer, she informed him she would take a paying job outside the home when the war ended, assuming that they would probably lose their fortune. International media Interoperability Framework. The couple had a total of six children: The Davises were devastated in 1854 when their first child died before the age of two. He worked as a planter, having developed Brierfield Plantation on land his brother allowed him to use, although Joseph Davis still retained possession of the land. At only 35 years of age, Varina Howell Davis was to become the First Lady of the Confederacy. But when her husband resigned from the Senate in January 1861 and left for Mississippi, she had to go with him. Jefferson had indeed lost his fortune with the end of slavery, and now he needed a job. James McGrath Morris, Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power. [12], In the summer of 1861, Davis and her husband moved to Richmond, Virginia, the new capital of the Confederacy. source: New York Public Library 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 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]. Varina Banks Howell Davis was the second wife of the politician Jefferson Davis, who became president of the Confederate States of America. In his powerful new novel, Charles Frazier returns to the time and place of cold mountain, vividly bringing to life the chaos and devastation of the Civil War. [5], Varina was born in Natchez, Mississippi, as the second Howell child of eleven, seven of whom survived to adulthood. The most contemporary touch is the disjointed timeline, but even that isn't entirely effective. During her stay, she met her host's much younger brother Jefferson Davis. The family began to regain some financial comfort until the Panic of 1873, when his company was one of many that went bankrupt. James McNeill Whistler. She had the gift of small talk, as her husband did not. The Davis marriage during the War is something of a mystery. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. But she was at his side when he died of pneumonia in December of that year, and she did what widows were supposed to do, attending the elaborate funeral, wearing black in his memory, and keeping his name, Mrs. Jefferson Davis. To the astonishment of many white Southerners, the widow Davis moved to New York City in 1890. When she was in North Carolina in 1862, he had to ask her by letter if she believed in his success. Their short honeymoon included a visit to Davis's aged mother, Jane Davis, and a visit to the grave of his first wife in Louisiana. She fumbled from the start. So she went. London, 1963: 43, fig. She served as the First Lady of the new nation at the capital in Richmond, Virginia, although she was ambivalent about the war. 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. [citation needed]. Service Ended: 1847. The Confederate First Lady Varina Davis recounted the story in her 1890 memoir and claimed that the president "went to the Mayor's office and had his free papers registered to insure Jim against getting into the power of the oppressor again." List of all 234 artworks by James McNeill Whistler. She had few suitors until she met Jefferson Davis while visiting friends in rural Mississippi in 1843. In 1860, she knew that Jefferson was being discussed as the head of any confederation of states, should they secede, but she wrote that he did not have the ability to compromise, an essential quality for a successful politician. Soon he took leave from his Congressional position to serve as an officer in the MexicanAmerican War (18461848). [30], As Davis and her daughter each worked at literary careers, they lived in a series of residential hotels in New York City. She actually found the tedium of rural life depressing, and she was always glad to return to the capitol. In Memphis, Jefferson fell in love with Virginia Clay, wife of Southern politician Clement Clay. Davis greeted the war with dread, supporting the Union but not slavery. the family had little privacy. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused extensive wind and water damage to Beauvoir, which houses the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library. In 1861, she declared at her receptions that she felt no hostility towards her Northern friends and relatives. 4. Davis was unemployed for most of the years after the war. Jefferson Davis was a 35-year-old widower when he and Varina met. All four of her sons were dead, and her other daughter, Margaret, had married a banker and moved to Colorado in the 1880s. It was through this connection that Varina met her future husband in 1843 while she and her father visited with the elder Davis at his Hurricane Plantation . Her neighbor Anne Grant, a Quaker and merchant's wife, became a lifelong friend. Fearing for the safety of their older children, she sent them to friends in Canada under the care of relatives and a family servant. englewood section 8 housing. His novel depicts Mrs. Davis. Davis mourned her and had been reclusive in the ensuing eight years. For several years, the Davises lived apart far more than they lived together. The Washington Post had an interesting article today on a Black child whom has been depicted as Confederate President Jeff Davis's adopted son. In Richmond, she was now in the spotlight as the First Lady. She enjoyed a daily ride in a carriage through Central Park. She arranged for Davis to use a cottage on the grounds of her plantation. After Sarah died in 1879, she left her considerable estate to Jefferson, so the family no longer faced destitution. She was not a proper Southern lady, nor was she an ardent Confederate. Although released on bail and never tried for treason, Jefferson Davis had temporarily lost his home in Mississippi, most of his wealth, and his U.S. citizenship. Varina Howell was a young woman of lively intellect and polished social graces who married Jefferson Davis when she was at the age of eighteen. The main house has been restored and a museum built there, housing the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library. The white Southern public developed a strangely proprietary view of Miss Davis, and an uproar ensued when she became engaged to a Syracuse lawyer, Alfred Wilkinson. She attended a reception where she met Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee Institute, then a black college. Grandchildren. Jefferson Finis Davis (June 3, 1808 - December 6, 1889) was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President of the Confederate States of America for its entire history. First Lady of the Confederate States of America Varina Davis was the wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis during the Civil War, and she lived at the Confederate White House in Richmond, Virginia during his term. 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. Varina Davis inherited the Beauvoir plantation.[28]. TheirPrivacy Policy & Terms of Useapply to your use of this service. But because she was married to Jefferson Davis, she had no choice but to take up her role when he became the Confederate President. In October 1902, she sold the plantation to the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans for $10,000. He chose to settle in Natchez, an inland port on the Mississippi. She agreed to conform to her husband's wishes, so the marriage stabilized on his terms. She was survived by her daughter Margaret Davis Hayes and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Varina's husband turned out to be a very conventional man. 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. Frederick Grant, son of Ulysses and Julia Grant, arranged for a military escort to accompany the body to Richmond, and President Theodore Roosevelt sent a wreath. She was with him at Beauvoir in 1878 when they learned that their last surviving son, Jefferson Davis, Jr., had died during a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981. Henry, a butler, left one night after allegedly building a fire in the mansion's basement to divert attention. Closed Dec. 25. He never went to trial, and he never swore allegiance to the United States government. She enjoyed urban life. Varina Davis enjoyed the social life of the capital and quickly established herself as one of the city's most popular (and, in her early 20s, one of the youngest) hostesses and party guests. In 1872 their son William Davis died of typhoid fever, adding to their emotional burdens. Her father was from a distinguished family in New Jersey: His father, Richard Howell, served several terms as Governor of New Jersey and died when William was a boy. When she returned to America in the 1880s, she accompanied her father on his public appearances. In January 1845, while Howell was ill with a fever, Davis visited her frequently. [citation needed]. He had a reputation for providing adequate food, clothing, and shelter for his bondsmen, although he left the management of the place to his overseers. Jefferson was one of the richest planters in Mississippi, the owner of over seventy slaves. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. All varina artwork ships within 48 hours and includes a 30-day money-back guarantee. To no surprise, she wrote in January 1865 that the last four years had been the worst years of her life. She wanted a partnership, what historians would call companionate marriage. She had to focus on the next chapter in the family's life. She was stimulated by the social life with intelligent people and was known for making "unorthodox observations". Their first residence was a two-room cottage on the property and they started construction of a main house. Kate Davis Pulitzer, a distant cousin of Jefferson Davis and the wife of Joseph Pulitzer, a major newspaper publisher in New York, had met Varina Davis during a visit to the South. Ultimately, the couple reconciled. Varina Davis returned with their children to Brierfield, expecting him to be commissioned as a general in the Confederate army. She missed Washington, and she said so, repeatedly. She also told him that if the South lost the war, it would be God's will. She also began to grasp that he still idealized his first wife, Sarah Knox Taylor, called Knox, who died a few months after they wed in 1835. [citation needed], Varina Howell was sent to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for her education, where she studied at Madame Deborah Grelaud's French School, a prestigious academy for young ladies. 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 . She made some unorthodox public statements, observing that woman suffrage might be a good idea, although she did not formally endorse the cause. Go to Artist page. [citation needed], Varina Howell Davis was one of numerous influential Southerners who moved to the North for work after the war; they were nicknamed "Confederate carpetbaggers". She was taller than most women, about five foot six or seven, which seems to have made some of her peers uncomfortable. [34], Provisional: February 18, 1861 to February 22, 1862. A classmate of Varina in Philadelphia, Dorsey had become a respected novelist and historian, and had traveled extensively. He was set in his ways for a man in his thirties, and he was strong-willed. [4] William Howell worked as a planter, merchant, politician, postmaster, cotton broker, banker, and military commissary manager, but never secured long-term financial success. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Varina Webb Stewart. There he married Margaret Kempe, the daughter of an Irish-American plantation owner who migrated from Virginia to Mississippi. She referred to herself as one because of her strong family connections in both North and South. That meant that the young Varina had to learn how to cook and sew, and she helped her mother look after her siblings, six in all. She learned the names of all the bondsmen, as her husband did not. According to Mary Chesnut, she thought the whole thing would be a failure. Davis said she would rather stay in Washington, even with Lincoln in the White House. She was a political moderate by the standards of the 1860s, pro-Union and pro-slavery, and she was surrounded by deeply partisan conservatives. 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. They quickly fell in love and married. (The name, given in honor of one of her mother's friends, rhymes with Marina.) She spent her early years in comfortable circumstances. 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. a small painting by Whistler that she treasured. All these reasons make sense, but the truth was she always preferred urban life, and New York was the nation's largest metropolis. June 26, 2010 Maggie. Among them were the couple Roger Atkinson Pryor and Sara Agnes Rice Pryor, who became active in Democratic political and social circles in New York City. Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, with his wife and First Lady Varina Howell, who many believe was African American. Following antebellum patterns, he still made all of the financial decisions, and he rarely, if ever, discussed politics or military events with her. According to diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut, in 1860 Mrs. Davis "sadly" told a friend "The South will secede if Lincoln is made president. During her grieving, Varina became friends again with Dorsey. The home was restored and reopened on June 3, 2008. For the rest of her life, she felt that she was in Knox's shadow. 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. Varina left, as her husband told her to do, and a few days later he fled the city for Texas, where he hoped to establish a new Confederate capitol and keep fighting. She moved to a house in Richmond, Virginia, in mid-1861, and lived there for the remainder of the American Civil War. Varina hoped they would settle permanently in London, a great city she found most stimulating. Charles Frazier, author of 'Cold Mountain," has written 'Varina,' historical fiction about Jefferson Davis' wife. Initially forbidden to have any contact with her husband, Davis worked tirelessly to secure his release. Sara Pryor became a writer, known for her histories, memoirs and novels published in the early 1900s. The family lived in a large brick house, jokingly dubbed the Gray House, in a prosperous neighborhood. Then thirty-five years old, Davis was a West Point graduate, former Army officer, and widower. They were captured by federal troops and Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe in Phoebus, Virginia, for two years. Both were famous, both had their critics as First Ladies, and they came from similar backgrounds: Grant, a Missouri native, was the daughter of a small-scale slave-owner. She followed Washington social customs, hosting large public receptions and small private dinners. She was supremely literate and could not hide it in her conversation. The star-studded film in 2003 earned $175 million worldwide, and Rene Zellweger collected an Oscar for her performance . Her residence in Gotham excited much criticism from white conservatives in Dixie, who demanded that she return to the South. Last edited on 26 February 2023, at 15:40, Learn how and when to remove this template message, President of the Confederate States of America, "Encyclopedia of Virginia: Varina Howell Davis", "Margaret Howell Davis Hayes Chapter No. Varina Davis spent most of the fifteen years between 1845 and 1860 in Washington, where she had demanding social duties as a politician's wife. Then the public forgot Davis and her heresies, largely because she did not conform to the stereotypes of her time, or our own time. Museum of the Confederacy, 1201 East Clay Street, Richmond, VIRGINIA 23219. Varina Davis was nearly a legend after the war because she assisted many southern families in getting back on their feet. Varina Davis remained in England to visit her sister who had recently moved there, and stayed for several months. Her mother initially favored the match, indifferent to Wilkinson's Yankee background, but she disapproved when she realized he did not have much money. Looking back from the 1880s, she told friends that her years in antebellum Washington were the happiest of her life. The Pierces lost their last surviving child, Benny, shortly before his father's inauguration.