Varina Davis

Who was Varina Davis?

Varina Banks Howell Davis was the second wife of the politician Jefferson Davis, who became president of the Confederate States of America. She served as the First Lady of the new nation at the capital in Richmond, Virginia, although she was ambivalent about the war. Smart and educated, with family in both the North and South, she had unconventional views for her public role, although she supported slavery and states' rights.

Howell Davis became a writer after the American Civil War, completing her husband's memoir. She was recruited by Kate Davis Pulitzer to write articles and eventually a regular column for her husband's newspaper, the New York World of Joseph Pulitzer. In 1891 Howell Davis moved to New York City to live full-time with her daughter Winnie after her husband's death. She acted to reconcile prominent figures of the North and South in the late nineteenth century.