Harriott Horry Rutledge Ravenel

Background

Harriott Horry Rutledge Ravenel was born on August 12, 1832 in Charleston, South Carolina, the daughter of Edward Cotesworth Rutledge, of "Hampton Plantation, " and his wife Rebecca Motte Lowndes, daughter of William Lowndes.

Education

She grew up in her birthplace and was educated by private teachers and at Madame Talvande's school for girls.

Career

She lived an uneventful life in Charleston until during the Civil War, when she went with her husband to Columbia. At the time of the invasion of Sherman's army, with her servants she courageously fought fire all night, saving her home and some of her possessions.

Her account of this experience, "When Columbia Burned, " was published in South Carolina Women in the Confederacy (1903). After the war she returned to Charleston, where she devoted herself to the interests of her husband, who was in frail health, and did much for the education of her children. In 1879, under the pseudonym of "Mrs. H. Hilton Broom, " she won the News and Courier prize for "Ashurst", a novel of Southern life which created tremendous local interest and which some consider her best work.

After her husband's death she went to live in the country at Acton, near Stateburg, where, since her Charleston home on East Battery was seriously damaged by the earthquake of 1886, she remained eleven years, with only occasional visits to Charleston.

Preserved in her family were many letters and documents of interesting forebears, and during the nineties she busied herself with the surviving letters of a paternal ancestress, in whom Alice Morse Earle also was then interested. In the spring of 1896 she published Eliza Pinckney, a small volume containing extracts from a precious old letter-book and a narrative of such charm that few realize its shortcomings in research.

Next she turned to The Life and Times of William Lowndes of South Carolina, 1782-1822 (1901), an uncritical study of her grandfather which is not without value, but which proved to be the least popular of her writings. Although interrupted by serious illness, during the next five years she completed a work for which she possessed every qualification, Charleston, the Place and the People (1906), a blend of antebellum history, legend, and discreet reminiscence.

Mrs. Ravenel has been aptly described as a great lady of the Old South.

After many years of poor health and a brief illness, she died in Charleston and was buried at Magnolia Cemetery. Her portrait by Charles Van Dyke, completed a few days before her death, is full of character, and shows her as a stately figure in white cap, seated in her favorite chair.

Achievements

• Ravenel was a good writer and an able historian. She was influential in establishing a strain of backward-looking literature in South Carolina.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Women of Colonial and Revolutionary Times. Eliza Pinckney

    ( About the Book These are titles about women who have be...)

  • Life and times of William Lowndes of South Carolina, 1782-1822

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Charleston, the Place and the People

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Eliza Pinckney (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Eliza Pinckney In preparing this life of Mr...)

  • Charleston, the Place and the People - Primary Source Edition

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Eliza Pinckney... - Primary Source Edition

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

  • Life and Times of William Lowndes of South Carolina, 1782-1822: -1901

    (Originally published in 1901. This volume from the Cornel...)

  • Charleston: The Place and the People (1906)

    (Originally published in 1906. This volume from the Cornel...)

Membership

Although she was not a club woman, she was active in the Ladies' Memorial Society and the Daughters of the Confederacy, and for three years, 1896, 1897, and 1898, she was president of the South Carolina Society of the Colonial Dames.

Personality

Tall, fair, and slender, combining simplicity with distinction, she possessed unusual dignity and charm of manner and voice. A good raconteur, with a sensitive appreciation for words and a knack for clever verses, she enjoyed social intercourse, and it was considered a compliment to procure for a distinguished visitor an introduction to her.

Connections

On March 20, 1851, she married Dr. St. Julien Ravenel.

Father:

Edward Cotesworth Rutledge

Mother:

Rebecca Motte Lowndes

Spouse:

Dr. St. Julien Ravenel

Grandfather:

William Lowndes

Daughter:

Helen Lowndes

Daughter:

Frances Gualdo

Daughter:

Harriott Rutledge

Daughter:

Lise R.

Daughter:

Anna Eliza

Son:

St. Julien

Son:

John

Son:

Francis ('Frank') Gualdo

Son:

Edward Rutledge