Varina Davis
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Varina Banks Howell Davis (born May 7, 1826 in Natchez , Mississippi , † October 16, 1906 in Manhattan , New York ) was the second wife of Jefferson Davis , President of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865. She worked after a reputation as a journalist and writer after her husband's death.
Childhood and youth
Varina Banks Howell was born in Natchez, one of the wealthiest communities in the southern United States. Her father, William Burr Howell, came from a distinguished New Jersey family; grandfather Richard Howell had served several times as governor of New Jersey; grandmother was a relative of Jonathan Edwards and Aaron Burr . In 1823 Howell married Margeret Louisa Kempe, who came from a wealthy Irish landowning family. The first son was born in 1824, Varina was the second child. Ten siblings followed by 1846, but four of them died in infancy. William B. Howell was an accountant, plantation owner, trader, politician, postmaster, cotton broker, and banker (in that order), but no long-term business success. The family lost the vast inheritance Margaret L. Kempe brought into the marriage during Varina's childhood. In the 1830s, the family's home, furnishings, and slaves were seized; family ownership was only triggered thanks to an intervention by the rich maternal relatives. Nevertheless, Varina was brought up according to the ideals of the upper class, learned to ride, dance and discuss. A family friend, Harvard attorney George Winchester, gave her private lessons. A temporary improvement in financial circumstances enabled the parents to let her attend a prestigious girls' school in Philadelphia in 1838, where she made lifelong acquaintances, including Sarah Ellis, daughter of large landowners in Mississippi. After a year she had to return to Natchez because the family could not afford the school fees.
In 1843, 17-year-old Varina was invited to the Christmas celebrations by Joseph Davis, a large landowner and old friend of the family, on his property near Vicksburg . There she met 35-year-old Jefferson Davis , the host's younger brother. Davis, a former officer and widower since 1835, was considering entering politics on the Democratic side at this point . Varina Howell was drawn to Jefferson Davis despite differences in age, background, and politics (the Howell family were close to the Whigs ). Her parents disapproved of the game but gave their consent to an engagement.
Marriage and time in Washington
The small-group marriage took place on February 26, 1845 in the Howell's home. The Davis couple then settled on Jefferson's plantation in Brierfield, Louisiana , where they planned a larger mansion. Soon after the wedding, Joseph Davis and his brothers housed their penniless sister, Amanda Davis Bradford, a widow with seven children. The young couple's dependence on Jefferson's older brother weighed on the young couple, as did the Howells' dependence on their daughter.
After Jefferson's election to the US House of Representatives in 1846, Varina accompanied her husband to Washington, DC , but returned to Brierfield that same year when Jefferson gave up the position to serve as an officer in the war against Mexico . The Davis' correspondence testifies to marital problems during this period. In 1847 Jefferson took over a vacant Senate seat in Washington. Varina quickly reconciled with her husband and followed him to Washington, where the couple stayed until 1861 because of Jefferson's Senate and Ministerial posts. Varina took an active part in Washington social life; in her memoir she describes this period as the best of her life. During Franklin Pierce's tenure as president, the Davis often represented the presidential couple as hosts at social receptions at the White House. Varina observed the political climate, took more moderate views than her husband and advised him on many political issues. The couple's first four children were also born in Washington, with the Davis having six children in total.
- Samuel Emory Davis (July 30, 1852 - June 13, 1854)
- Margaret Howell Davis (February 25, 1855 - July 18, 1909: ∞ Joel A. Hayes, five children)
- Jefferson Davis Jr. (January 16, 1857 - October 16, 1878)
- Joseph Evan Davis (April 18, 1859 - April 30, 1864)
- William Howell Davis (December 6, 1861 - October 16, 1872)
- Varina Anne "Winnie" Davis (June 27, 1864 - September 18, 1898)
First Lady of the Confederation
As early as 1861, Varina Davis was of the opinion that the southern states could not win a war with the northern states and distanced themselves from slavery. Out of a sense of duty and patriotism, but reluctantly, she left Washington when her husband announced Mississippi's secession in the Senate in January 1861. After a stay in Brierfield, she followed him to the newly proclaimed capital of the Confederate States of America , Montgomery , Alabama , where she immediately took over the duties of First Lady until the administration moved to Richmond , Virginia . The White House there led them to Washington etiquette. Her intellectual insights, literary education, as well as the close contacts and friendships that she still maintained after Washington made her unpopular in Richmond. As President Davis became more and more ailing as the war years went on, Varina tended to his schedule. She also gave birth to two more children in the White House during the war.
Shortly before the end of the war, the couple were separated, which delayed their escape to Europe and led to their being caught in Georgia . Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe while his wife was restricted in her freedom of movement. Varina sent the three older children to Canada while she worked tirelessly through public relations and petitions to gain access to her husband and later his release.
Post-war years
After Jefferson Davis was released on bail in 1867, the couple were initially destitute and left the United States to make a living elsewhere. Jefferson Davis returned to the States in 1869, where charges against him had been dropped and he took over an insurance company in Memphis . The Davis family life in the 1870s was characterized by regular travel between America and Europe and frequent separation of family members. Varina Davis visited her sister in England, Jefferson visited her there on business trips, the children were enrolled in prestigious boarding schools and regularly visited by their caring mother. An affair between Jefferson Davis and Virginia Clay, the wife of Clement Claiborne Clay , became public and put a strain on the marriage. Further strokes of fate were the deaths of the fifth and then the third son in 1872 and 1878. In addition, Jefferson Davis's business was bad and in 1877 he was ill, bankrupt and with no prospect of employment. He accepted an invitation from the wealthy widow Sarah Dorsey (née Ellis), Varina's former schoolmate, to retire to her estate in Biloxi . Varina, meanwhile returned to the States and Memphis, condemned the relationship with the widow and only gradually reconciled with her husband the following year.
Mrs. Dorsey donated the Beauvoir estate in Biloxi to the reunited Davis family and died in 1879. Jefferson Davis published his memoirs of his tenure as president in 1881, and daughter Winnie returned to the United States in the same year. The Davis family's regained reputation and fame resulted in frequent visits from former Confederates, veterans, journalists, and the curious. Varina Davis, as she wrote to a friend, got tired of the crowd and felt uncomfortable in the gift house and the rural surroundings.
widow
Jefferson Davis died in 1889. The now 63-year-old Varina published a biography of her husband that did not sell well. In this situation, she accepted the Pulitzer couple's offer to move to New York and work as a full-time columnist for New York World . The return to the big city life, according to her own admission, was good for her. Her daughter Winnie came with her to advance her literary career, but died in 1898. The Beauvoir estate, which Jefferson Winnie had inherited, was only sold by Varina in 1902 to a veterans' foundation, which set up a home there.
In New York, Davis shocked conservative ex-Confederates with their closeness to the "Yankees" and their controversial attitudes. From 1893 onwards she cultivated a friendship with Julia D. Grant , the widow of President Ulysses S. Grant , shook hands with the black civil rights activist Booker T. Washington in 1901, and publicly declared that God "in his wisdom" had the northern states in the Won the civil war. This was outrageous to conservative circles in the southern states, who expected her to have a sentimental and glorifying view of the Confederation. Nevertheless, Davis was also a member of southerners' associations and received former officers and supporters from both sides.
Varina Davis died of pneumonia in her New York apartment at the age of 80. Her coffin was carried through New York in a funeral procession before it was interred with full military honors next to her husband and daughter Winnie in Richmond .
literature
- Joan Cashin: First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis's Civil War. Belknap Press, Cambridge MA 2006.
Web links
- Varina Davis in Encyclopedia Virginia
- biography
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Davis, Varina |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Howell Davis, Varina Banks |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | second wife of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America (1861–1865) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 7, 1826 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Natchez , Mississippi |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 16, 1906 |
| Place of death | Manhattan , New York |