Background
Varina Banks Howell was born on 7 May 1826 at Natchez, Mississippi, United States. She was the daughter of William Burr Howell and Margaret Louisa Kempe. Varina was the second child of eleven, seven of whom survived to adulthood.
1845
Wedding photograph of Jefferson Davis and Varina Howell.
1869
Montreal, Canada
Jefferson and Varina Davis.
Varina Banks Howell was born on 7 May 1826 at Natchez, Mississippi, United States. She was the daughter of William Burr Howell and Margaret Louisa Kempe. Varina was the second child of eleven, seven of whom survived to adulthood.
Varina's education was mainly social consistent with that accorded to prominent family daughters in the old South.
Varina attended Madame Grelaud's French School, a prestigious academy for young ladies in Philadelphia. Varina returned to Natchez after one year, probably due to the family's inability to afford further tuition, and was privately tutored by Judge George Winchester, a Harvard graduate, and family friend. She studied French, Latin and English classics, and by the time she was a teenager, she read the National Intelligencer regularly.
Varina adjusted well to life as the wife of a politician in Washington. in her own way, she shared her husband's ambitious temperament, though not his extreme sensitivity to criticism. The latter trait, coupled with the tendency to be aggressively critical of others, would help sustain her through the difficult years as First Lady of the Confederacy.
As living conditions in Richmond deteriorated during the second year of the war, Varina found herself increasingly under public scrutiny. Some decried her as insensitive to the hardships endured by the city's residents because she entertained at the White House of the Confederacy; others complained that she did not entertain lavishly enough. There were those who considered her influence on the president too great, challenged her loyalty to the cause because of her father's Northern roots, or called her ill-bred and unrefined. The last may have been justified by her heated retorts to gossip denigrating Davis' ability as a politician.
Of Varina's 6 children, 1 was born during these frantic years, and another died tragically. Yet through all the family's public and private trials, Varina provided Davis with loyalty, companionship, and a great reserve of strength.
Varina was with Davis when he was arrested in Georgia. After his capture and confinement, the children were sent to Canada in charge of their maternal grandmother. Varina was prohibited from leaving Georgia without permission from Federal authorities, but she lobbied incessantly to secure her husband's release from prison, succeeding in May 1867.
The Davises lived in near-poverty until the early 1870s when a friend arranged for them to purchase "Beauvoir," the Mississippi estate to which they retired. Varina stayed on to write her memoirs after Davis' death in 1889. She then gave Beauvoir to the state as a Confederate veterans' home and moved to New York City to support herself by writing articles for magazines and periodicals.
Varina was a member of the Episcopal church.
Varina Anne Banks Howell Davis had unconventional views for her public role, although she supported slavery and states' rights.
She put aside her pride and her Whig views to express an interest in Jefferson Davis's Democratic beliefs.
Over the course of his political career, Jefferson had become more openly hostile to Northerners, but Varina never shared his regional antagonisms. If she could have voted in 1860, she probably would have voted for John Bell. Her husband voted for John Breckinridge.
Varina believed that secession would bring war, and she knew that a war would divide her family and friends. She hoped that the sectional crisis could be resolved peacefully, although she did not provide any specifics.
Mrs. Davis believed that the South did not have the material resources, in terms of population and manufacturing prowess, to defeat the North, and that white Southerners did not have the qualities necessary to win a war. According to Mary Chesnut, she thought the “whole thing” would be a "failure."
Quotations: "I do not know whether this Mr. Jefferson Davis is young or old. 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]. He impresses me as a remarkable kind of man, but of uncertain temper, and has a way of taking for granted that everybody agrees with him when he expresses an opinion, which offends me; yet he is most agreeable and has a peculiarly sweet voice and a winning manner of asserting himself. 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 Davis organized many receptions and dinner parties. She set a fine table, and she acquired a wardrobe of beautiful clothes in the latest fashion. She had the gift of small talk, as her husband did not. Her wit was sharp, but she knew how to put guests at ease, and her contemporaries described her as a brilliant conversationalist.
Physical Characteristics: Varina Davis had glossy hair and big dark eyes, she was tall and slim with an olive complexion, which was considered unattractive in the nineteenth century.
Varina Anne Banks Howell was but seventeen when she met Jefferson Davis, eighteen years her senior while visiting the plantation of his brother adjacent to his own. Two months later they were engaged and after objections from her family were overcome, Varina married in 1845 at the age of eighteen. The couple planned on life at "Brierfield," however, Jeff Davis was nominated for a seat in the United States House of Representatives and Varina became a politician's wife. They had four sons and two daughters.
They had their differences at times over the fifty-four years of their marriage, but they remained devoted to each other through several decades of remarkable hardship.