Joan E. Cashin's The First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis's Civil War, published in 2006, is "the first professional biography of Varina Howell Davis." A theme of the book (or at least Whites' review of it) is Davis's uneasiness or even opposition to her husband's political positions.
Varina married Jefferson Davis in 1845. He came from a wealthier planter family and was about twice her age. during the 1840s and 1850s she lived a comfortable life in in the capitol entertaining guests and discussing books with other educated women. Her life was obviously transformed by the decision of men like her husband to secede and initiate the Civil War.
What was most striking about Varina Davis was her apparent opposition to her husband's politics. For White, "what this close study of Davis reveals is the role that gender could play in containing dissent." She continued correspondence with family living in the north even after such correspondence was made illegal. And, opposed to secession, she visited the Richmond Hospital to nurse Union prisoners. Davis and her husband did not discuss politics, and what is known is drawn from what were sporadic expressions of opinion.
With her husband's death in 1889 Davis moved to New York and became a writer for the Pulitzer newspapers. In 1906 she acknowledge publicly that she was glad the Union defeated the Confederacy.
Works Referenced:
Whites, LeeAnn. "The First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis's Civil War." American Historical Review 112.5 (2007): 1541. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 Nov. 2010.
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