First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis's Civil War is a 2006 book by Joan E. Cashin, published by Harvard University Press. Its subject is Varina Davis.
It was the first biography of Davis written for an academic purpose, [1] and the first written by a historian who adopted the job as a career. [2] Additionally, LeeAnn Whites of the University of Missouri, Columbia, described it as "the first professional biography" of the subject. [3]
Frances Clarke of the University of Sydney stated that the work not only discusses Davis but also "the paradoxes of Southern history and the trajectory of Confederate memory". [4]
Cashin worked for Ohio State University as a professor with the rank associate. [5]
Virginia J. Laas of Missouri Southern State University stated that prior to the publication of this book, scholars had to use First Lady of the South: The Life of Mrs. Jefferson Davis, a 1958 book that she called "superficial". [6]
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The initial portion of the book discusses how, towards the end of her life, Varina attempted to write an autobiography. [7]
The book is a comprehensive biography of all stages of Varina's life. Cashin argued that Varina's beliefs were determined by her views on social class, culture, gender, and racial beliefs, which the author groups into four themes. [6]
The book's discussion of Varina's initial years includes those of the culture, customs, and history of the antebellum Southern United States. [8]
Stephanie McCurry of University of Pennsylvania wrote that the book covers relatively little of the American Civil War itself. [9]
The later parts of the book touch upon the retrospective point of view of history among White Southerners. Clarke stated that "narrow-minded shrillness (in fact, downright craziness)" of Neo-Confederates is evident in these portions. [8]
In the portions discussing Varina's life before she publicly repudiated the South, Laas states, especially in regards to African-American issues and slavery, that the author "becomes impatient with her subject, wanting Varina to be a real rebel". [10] The final portion of the book states that repudiation, when Varina stated that the Union was the correct side to achieve victory in the civil war. [11]
Laas concludes that the book's picture of Jefferson Davis, Varina's husband, was "a devastating portrait of a self-absorbed and egotistical man." [12] McCurry agreed, stating that Jefferson Davis was "so utterly self-regarding, so painfully disloyal to his own family." [13] McCurry added that the information "does more to destroy the man's reputation than anything his political critics could possibly have said of him." [13]
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Clarke stated that the work is "enthralling", [4] and that even non-academic readers may find interest in the work due to the historical details and because it is "unusually well-paced". [14] Citing how the author gives context throughout the book to each detail, Clarke described the author as "an exemplary historian". [8]
Janet L. Coryell of Western Michigan University stated that the text is "lively" and the "research is impeccable". [15]
Brad Hooper of Booklist wrote that the author had "well-researched" the work, and that she has a "Sympathetic but not uncritical" tone. [16]
Laas stated that the work is a "fine biography", [6] and that it is "wonderfully crafted and insightful". [10] She argued that the author was even-handed in presenting Jefferson Davis so a reader would understand why Varina did not leave him. Laas also argued, in regards to Varina Davis's lack of commitment to the Confederate cause, that the author "does an outstanding job of exploring the ramifications of Varina's" beliefs. [12]
Chandra Miller Manning of Georgetown University stated that the book does not say as much about the years Varina was First Lady of the Confederacy, which was her reason for notability but also the period where she perceived herself most as being stifled. Manning overall praised the efforts of the author, stating "the pleasure of getting to know [the subject of the book] is worthwhile in its own right." [17] She argued that, due to the limitations of the subject, "even the most delightful biography of Davis mainly confirms rather than adds to what we already know" about various subjects. [17]
McCurry praised the author's work in making the book. [5] She favored the focus on Varina's life instead of on the civil war. McCurry argued that the enjoyment of reading the book differed by section, which reflected how Varina felt during her marriage; she argued that while the initial part is "vibrant and engaging", the married life part was "dull and slogging" "as if marriage[...]dragged down author with subject." [9] Then, in the last portion of the book, after Jefferson Davis is dead, McCurry states that "Joan Cashin and Varina Howell Davis have a much better time". [18]
Micki McElya of the University of Connecticut stated that the book is "exhaustively researched and illuminating". [7]
Whites praised the book as being "meticulously researched, compellingly written, and thoughtfully presented". [3]
Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review and stated that it is "a terrifically winning" work, and that the author is "a strong, clear writer". [1]
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or the South, was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confederacy was composed of eleven U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the United States during the American Civil War. The states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
Jefferson F. Davis was an American politician who served as the first and only president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party before the American Civil War. He was the United States Secretary of War from 1853 to 1857.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, and the promotion of the pseudohistorical Lost Cause ideology and corresponding white supremacy.
Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Willard became the national president of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879 and remained president until her death in 1898. Her influence continued in the next decades, as the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution were adopted. Willard developed the slogan "Do Everything" for the WCTU and encouraged members to engage in a broad array of social reforms by lobbying, petitioning, preaching, publishing, and education.
The Beauvoir estate, built in Biloxi, Mississippi, along the Gulf of Mexico, was the post-war home (1876–1889) of the former President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis. The National Park Service designated the house and plantation as a National Historic Landmark.
Varina Anne Banks Davis was the only First Lady of the Confederate States of America, and the longtime second wife of President Jefferson Davis. She moved to the presidential mansion in Richmond, Virginia, in mid-1861, and lived there for the remainder of the Civil War. Born and raised in the Southern United States and educated in Philadelphia, she had family on both sides of the conflict and unconventional views for a woman in her public role. She did not support the Confederacy's position on slavery, and was ambivalent about the war.
The Second White House of the Confederacy is a historic house located in the Court End neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. Built in 1818, it served as the main executive residence of the sole President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, from August 1861 until April 1865. It currently sits on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University.
The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881) is a book written by Jefferson Davis, who served as President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Davis wrote the book as a straightforward history of the Confederate States of America and as an apologia for the causes that he believed led to and justified the American Civil War.
Sarah Anne Dorsey was an American novelist and historian from the prominent southern Percy family. She published several novels and a highly regarded biography of Henry Watkins Allen, governor of Louisiana during the years of the American Civil War. It is considered an important contribution to the literature of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.
Virginia Clay-Clopton (1825–1915) was a political hostess and activist in Alabama and Washington, D.C. She was also known as Virginia Tunstall, Virginia Clay, and Mrs. Clement Claiborne Clay. She took on different responsibilities after the Civil War. As the wife of US Senator Clement Claiborne Clay from Alabama, she was part of a group of young southerners who boarded together in the capital in particular hotels. In the immediate postwar period, she worked to gain her husband's freedom from imprisonment at Fort Monroe, where Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederacy, was also held.
Lunsford Lindsay Lomax was the fourth president of Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and an officer in the United States Army who resigned his commission to join the Confederate Army at the outbreak of the American Civil War. He had maintained a close friendship with his West Point classmate Fitzhugh Lee, and served under him as a brigadier in the Overland Campaign. He was then given command of the Valley District, where he supervised intelligence-gathering operations by Mosby's Rangers.
William Charles "Jack" Davis is an American historian who was a professor of history at Virginia Tech and the former director of programs at that school's Virginia Center for Civil War Studies. Specializing in the American Civil War, Davis has written more than 40 books on that subject and other aspects of early southern U.S. history, such as the Texas Revolution. He is the only three-time winner of the Jefferson Davis Prize for Confederate history and was awarded the Jules and Frances Landry Award for Southern History. His book Lone Star Rising has been called "the best one-volume history of the Texas revolution yet written".
Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site is a 12.668-acre (5.127 ha) state historic site located in Irwin County, Georgia that marks the spot where Confederate States President Jefferson Davis was captured by United States Cavalry on Wednesday, May 10, 1865. The historic site features a granite monument with a bronze bust of Davis that is located at the place of capture. The memorial museum, built in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration, features Civil War era weapons, uniforms, artifacts and an exhibit about the president's 1865 flight from Richmond, Virginia to Irwin County, Georgia.
Varina Anne "Winnie" Davis 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. Born near the end of the war, by the late 1880s she became known as the "Daughter of the Confederacy". Images of her were widely circulated when she was young, helping morale. Later in the 1880s, she appeared with her father on behalf of Confederate veterans' groups. After his death, she and her mother moved in 1891 to New York City, where they both worked as writers. She published a biography and two novels, in addition to numerous articles. Davis died from an infectious disease at age 34.
Madame Grelaud's French School, also called Madame Grelaud's Seminary, was a boarding school for girls in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which ran from approximately 1809–1849. Many prominent northerners and southerners sent their daughters to such institutions to participate in rigorous academic curricula and learn about elite aspects of culture. The school is an example of the fashionable French-centered education, popular throughout the nineteenth century.
George W. Winchester was a justice of the Mississippi's supreme court from 1827 to 1829.
The following is a list of scholarly resources related to Jefferson Davis.
Was Jefferson Davis Right? is a 1998 book by James Ronald Kennedy and Walter Donald Kennedy, published by Pelican Publishing Company. The authors wrote the work to defend the secession of the Confederate States of America, which Jefferson Davis pursued as the secessonist president.
Margaret Louisa Kempe Howell was an American heiress, planter, and slaveowner who was the mother of Confederate First Lady Varina Davis and mother-in-law of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Upon her marriage to the son of New Jersey Governor Richard Howell, her father granted her a dowry of sixty slaves and two thousand acres of land in Mississippi. She and her husband faced financial difficulties throughout their lives and depended on the support of her family. After their plantation was seized by creditors, they rented a mansion known as The Briars from John Perkins Sr. Following the American Civil War, Howell fled to Canada, where she died.
Jefferson Davis: Unconquerable Heart is a 1999 non-fiction book by Felicity Allen, published by the University of Missouri Press, about Jefferson Davis.