Varina Anne Davis

Winnie Davis

Varina Anne "Winnie" Davis (born June 27, 1864 in Richmond , Virginia , † September 18, 1898 in Narragansett Pier , Rhode Island ) was an American writer and artist. As the youngest daughter of the President of the Confederate States of America , sympathizers stylized her as the “daughter of the Confederation” after the end of the civil war.

childhood

Varina Anne Davis was born in the Confederate States' White House a year before the end of the American Civil War, the second daughter and sixth child of Varina Banks Howell Davis and President Jefferson Finis Davis . As the only one of the children, she and her mother were allowed to visit their father during his two-year imprisonment in Fort Monroe .

Varina, known as "Winnie", was raised in home school by her mother and accompanied her parents on their travels. The ailing Winnie was accepted as a student in Karlsruhe in 1876 at the age of twelve by the renowned and internationally influenced "Institut Friedländer". She spent five years in the German Reich and returned to the USA after a stay in Paris . It was reported that she had a German accent since then.

Artist life and death

Davis spent the 1880s at her childhood home in Biloxi , Mississippi . Like her mother, she worked as a painter, musician, and writer, and under the name of Varina Anne Jefferson Davis, she published magazine articles and three novels as well as an autobiographical monograph in which she described it as stupid to send American children to Europe for education send.

At the side of her aging father, she gave speeches and gradually took over his representative duties. During a meeting with the Governor of Georgia , John B. Gordon , in Atlanta in 1886 she was referred to as the "Daughter of the Confederation". The inherent title made her an icon of Southern veterans.

She entered into a relationship with New York attorney Alfred C. Wilkinson that lasted five years. When their engagement was announced in 1890 - after the death of their father - a public protest was made in the southern states. The engagement was broken off. In 1891, Davis moved to New York City with her mother .

She died in 1898 at the age of 34 from malaria contracted while visiting Rhode Island . Given her status in the southern states, she was buried with military honors in Richmond next to her father's grave. In 1906 her mother was buried in the same place.

bibliography

• An Irish Knight of the Seventeenth Century , Roman, 1888
• Foreign Education for American Girls , Monograph, 1888
• The Veiled Doctor , Roman, 1895
• A Romance of Summer Seas , Roman, 1898

literature

• Volker C. Ihle: “Daughter of the Southern States” with a German accent: Winnie Davis went to school in Karlsruhe. In: look into history. No. 121, December 14, 2018, pp. 2–3 . 

Web links

• Charles Clifton Ferrell: The Daughter of the Confederacy. Her life, character and writings. Mississippi Historical Society, 1899, pp. 69-84 Reprint, digitized
• Varina Anne Davis. In: jeffersondavis.rice.edu. (English, short biography). 
• Women In History: Varina Anne Davis. In: essortment.com. Archived from the original on April 6, 2013 (English, short biography).