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Last home of Jefferson and Varina Davis, site of his retirement and his Presidential Library, Beauvoir House is operated by the Sons of Confederate Veterans and was a home for Confederate veterans and their widows until 1957. 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. She grew tired of the inquisitive strangers at the door, as she admitted to a friend, but she had to be polite. International media Interoperability Framework. Catalog description: 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 next two decades proved to be a miserable time for the Davises. Her marriage prospects limited, teenage Varina Howell agrees to wed the much-older widower Jefferson Davis, with whom she expects the secure life of a Mississippi landowner. [citation needed]. cat. The small Davis family traveled constantly in Europe and Canada as he sought work to rebuild his fortunes. Varina read a great deal, attended the opera, went to the theater, and took carriage rides in Central Park. "Marriage of William B. Howell to Margaret L. Kempe, July 17, 1823, Adams County, Mississippi", Ancestry.com. Both of her grandfathers, and her father, helped create the Union through their military service, and she had many Yankee kinfolk. (The name, given in honor of one of her mother's friends, rhymes with Marina.) She spent her early years in comfortable circumstances. After a few months Varina Davis was allowed to correspond with him. Jefferson and Varina Davis with their grandchildren Courtesy of Beauvoir, Biloxi, Miss. For three years in the early 1870s, he wrote fervent love letters to her, and she may have been the mysterious woman on the train in 1871. She also told him that if the South lost the war, it would be God's will. As federal soldiers called out for them to surrender, Jefferson tried to escape. Members of Richmond society, many of them preoccupied with skin color, called her a mulatto or squaw behind her back. 11:30 a.m.7:00 p.m. [27], Dorsey's bequest made Winnie Davis the heiress after Jefferson Davis died in 1889. The early losses of all four of their sons caused enormous grief to both the Davises. She retained the nickname for the rest of her life. The letter created a sensation, resulting in another round of debate about her widowhood in the North. Obituaries appeared in the national and international press, with some barbed commentary from the Southern papers. Davis is nobody's foolthis reads more like a novel its heroine might have read in the late days of the 19th century than something written in the 21st. )[7], When Varina was thirteen, her father declared bankruptcy. Varina Anne Davis, called "Winnie," was born in the Confederate White House in June, 1864. [9] One of Varina's classmates was Sarah Anne Ellis, later known as Sarah Anne Dorsey, the daughter of extremely wealthy Mississippi planters. [26] When Winnie Davis completed her education, she joined her parents at Beauvoir. Winnie wrote two novels, which received mixed reviews. But Davis's dark complexion became an issue, more than at any time in her life. An Exh. By the end of the decade, Davis was one of the city's most popular hostesses. 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. Varina Davis visits from Raleigh July 13 Meets with Lee, Jackson, Longstreet, and other generals August [15-20] Varina Davis returns to Richmond August 28-30 Battle of Second Manassas (Bull Run), Virginia September 3 Lee writes of his intention to march into Maryland September 17 Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg), Maryland September 22 Get the forecast for today, tonight & tomorrow's weather for Simmern, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Both the Davises suffered from depression due to the loss of their sons and their fortunes.[25]. Clay was the wife of their friend, former senator Clement Clay, a fellow political prisoner at Fort Monroe. Davis was planning a gala housewarming with many guests and entertainers to inaugurate his lavish new mansion on the cotton plantation. The star-studded film in 2003 earned $175 million worldwide, and Rene Zellweger collected an Oscar for her performance . Merry Mary Chesnutt, kind Julia Grant, and swashbuckling Sam Houston grace the pages as real-life figures brought to historical life, but Varina's most compelling interlocutor is James Blake, a black schoolteacher who is almost certain he's the African-American child who fled Richmond with her. The family survived on the charity of relatives and friends. Young William joined the U. S. Navy, served in the War of 1812, and afterwards he explored the Mississippi River Valley. They both established a new network of friends and exchanged visits with their many Howell relatives in the Northeast. His first wife, Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of his commanding officer Zachary Taylor while he was in the Army, had died of malaria three months after their wedding in 1835. She solicited short articles from her for her husband's newspaper, the New York World. Varina Davis's family background was significant in shaping her values. She helped him finish his memoir, which appeared in 1881. 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. All these reasons make sense, but the truth was she always preferred urban life, and New York was the nation's largest metropolis. Davis was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane (Cook) Davis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006. 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. The Briars Inn, 31 Irving Lane, Natchez MS 39121, 601 446 9654, 1 800 633 MISS. Reasonably good-looking, well-mannered, and always well-dressed, he was an excellent shot and a first-rate horseman. Her neighbor Anne Grant, a Quaker and merchant's wife, became a lifelong friend. 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. Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889, Davis, Varina, 1826-1906, Statesmen, Presidents, genealogy Publisher New York : Belford Co. Collection lincolncollection; americana Digitizing sponsor The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant Contributor Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection Language English Volume 1 Davis was a Democrat and the Howells, including Varina, were Whigs. Her brothers decided that she should share the large house which the Davises were building, but they had not consulted Varina Davis. [citation needed], Sarah Dorsey was determined to help support the former president; she offered to sell him her house for a reasonable price. [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. Four candidates ran, expounding different positions on the issue: Stephen Douglas, the Illinois Democrat, wanted to let settlers decide the slavery question prior to their becoming organized territories; John C. Breckinridge, the Kentucky Democrat, acknowledged that secession would probably follow if anyone threatened to halt slaverys expansion into the West and believed that secession was an inherent right of the states; John Bell, the Tennessean and former Whig, argued that all political issues, including slavery, should be resolved inside the Union; and Abraham Lincoln, the Illinois Republican, insisted that the expansion of slavery into the West had to stop. After Sarah died in 1879, she left her considerable estate to Jefferson, so the family no longer faced destitution. Margaret Graham was illegitimate as her parents, George Graham, a Scots immigrant, and Susanna McAllister (17831816) of Virginia, never officially married. Go to Artist page. Jefferson Davis was the 10th and last . After working as an attorney, Roger Pryor was appointed as a judge. Her friendship with Julia Dent Grant reflects her views on reconciliation. Blair writes, "The categories of reconciliationist . 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. She did not accompany him when he traveled to Montgomery, Alabama (then capital of the new country) to be inaugurated. The book opens in 1906 in Saratoga Springs, New York, when a man of white and black descent, James Blake, enters The Retreat, the hotel where V is staying, seeking to discover information about his lost boyhood. [32], Varina Howell Davis received a funeral procession through the streets of New York City. She was a granddaughter of Richard Howell, Governor of New Jersey, 1793-1801. She was stimulated by the social life with intelligent people and was known for making "unorthodox observations". New York: HarperCollins, 1991. Choose your favorite varina designs and purchase them as wall art, home decor, phone cases, tote bags, and more! In 1852, she commented that slaves are human beings, with their frailties, her only generalization about the institution of bondage before the Civil War. Varina Davis returned for a time to Briarfield, where she chafed under the supervision of her brother-in-law, Joseph. Her dry humor sometimes fell flat. The family was eventually given a more comfortable apartment in the officers' quarters of the fort. Of all the women who have served as First Ladies in this country, Varina Howell Davis was probably the unhappiest. 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. In general, he loved the countryside, and he often said that the happiest times of his marriage to Varina were spent at Brierfield. They were captured by federal troops and Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe in Phoebus, Virginia, for two years. 1808 - 1889) was an American politician who is best known as the President of the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861-1865). When she was in North Carolina in 1862, he had to ask her by letter if she believed in his success. All four of her sons were dead, and her other daughter, Margaret, had married a banker and moved to Colorado in the 1880s. The Davises returned to his plantation, Brierfield, several times a year. To no surprise, she wrote in January 1865 that the last four years had been the worst years of her life. Status: . Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. James Dennison and his wife, Betsey, who had served as Varina's maid, used saved back pay of 80 gold dollars to finance their escape. Her own family grew, as she gave birth in 1852 to Samuel, the first of six children, and she delighted in her offspring. 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. Varina Davis was put under the guardianship of Joseph Davis, whom she had come to dislike intensely. If she could have voted in 1860, she probably would have voted for John Bell. 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. It's Varina who caught Frazier's attention. 0 She missed Washington, and she said so, repeatedly. [12], In the summer of 1861, Davis and her husband moved to Richmond, Virginia, the new capital of the Confederacy. Shop for varina wall art from the world's greatest living artists. After Winnie died in 1898, she was buried next to her father in Richmond, Virginia. Still, she remained sensitive to the needs of her children and her husband. When they married on February 26, 1845, at her parents' house, a few relatives and friends of the bride attended, and none of the groom's family. Her father James Kempe, Varina's maternal grandfather, had an impressive military record, serving in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. He was elected as President of the Confederate States of America by the new Confederate Congress. 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. He put on a raincoat, and she threw a shawl over his head; as he crept into the woods, Varina explained to the troops that it was her mother. He offered her an annual stipend to write for his paper, so she turned out articles on safe topics such as Christmas in wartime Richmond. She attended a reception where she met Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee Institute, then a black college. He returned to the US for this work. [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. The couple rented comfortable houses in town, where she organized many receptions and dinner parties. Conservatives declared it unsupportable that Winnie should marry a Yankee, and after wavering for some time, she broke the engagement in 1890. By contrast, Varina did not like to dwell on all the men who died in what she called a hopeless struggle. Varina Davis, the ill-starred wife of Jefferson Davis, the defeated president of the Confederacy, spent the majority of her life traveling. But miseries continued to rain in upon them. Davis and young Winnie were allowed to join Jefferson in his prison cell. Samuel Emory Davis, born July 30, 1852, named after his paternal grandfather; he died June 30, 1854, of an undiagnosed disease. This photo was taken on the couple's wedding day in 1845. It was her favorite place to live. They had more in common than might be evident at first glance. Shortly after first meeting him, Howell wrote to her mother: I do not know whether this Mr. Jefferson Davis is young or old.