The Confederate Diary That Suggests Varina Howell Davis, First Lady of the Confederacy, Had Mixed Heritage

Wedding photograph of Jefferson Davis and Varina Howell, 1845 (Source: New York Public Library)

Varina Howell Davis, the second wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, has long been remembered as the First Lady of the Confederacy during the tumultuous years of the American Civil War. Yet, a lesser-known account from the diary of Confederate Army Lt. James Malbone presents a provocative claim that may alter how we understand her legacy—one that hints at Varina having possible mixed-race ancestry.

Born in 1826 on the Marengo Plantation in Louisiana, Varina was the daughter of a wealthy plantation family. She was educated privately and later attended finishing school, receiving the kind of upbringing befitting a Southern aristocrat. At the age of 17, she met Jefferson Davis, a widowed politician who would go on to become the president of the Confederacy. Despite an initial disapproval from her mother, the two were married in 1845.

However, an entry in Malbone’s diary, written during his service with the Confederate Army in 1863-1864, sheds new light on Varina's heritage. Malbone, who was stationed with the 6th Virginia Infantry, described the First Lady as “dark complected,” with “very brown skin,” “dark eyes,” “high cheekbones,” and a “wide mouth.” These physical traits, which he noted in a coded entry, align with features often associated with African ancestry, suggesting that Varina may have had mixed heritage.

In the context of the racially segregated Confederacy, such speculation would have been explosive. Malbone’s decision to encode these observations underscores the sensitivity surrounding the issue of race, especially in relation to prominent figures. The diary entry, long overlooked, offers a tantalizing clue that challenges the traditional understanding of Varina’s background, one that might have been intentionally obscured or ignored during her lifetime.

While there is no definitive evidence to confirm Varina’s African heritage, Malbone’s description provides an intriguing starting point for revisiting her story. It prompts a larger conversation about identity, race, and the complexities of heritage, especially in a time when racial purity was held in such high regard by the Southern elite. If Varina did indeed have African ancestry, it adds a layer of depth to her role in Confederate society and raises questions about how race influenced her life, both personally and publicly.

Varina’s own reflections on her life further complicate the narrative. She famously described her time in Richmond during the Civil War as the "worst years of her life," contrasting it with the happiness she found while living in Washington, D.C. This longing for a different life, away from the Confederate capital, may reflect a more complex relationship with her own identity and the racialized world she inhabited.

Varina with her namesake, the youngest child born in 1864.

Following Jefferson's death in 1889, Varina moved to New York, where she lived until her own passing in 1906. This shift away from the South could be interpreted as more than just a change in geography; it may have been an escape from the oppressive racial and political structures of the South, which would have been particularly complicated for someone with the potential for mixed ancestry.

Ultimately, Lt. Malbone’s diary offers us a glimpse into a world of hidden truths, revealing how racial identity was both constructed and contested in the antebellum and Confederate South. Whether Varina Howell Davis had mixed-race ancestry or not, this revelation encourages us to reconsider the personal histories of prominent figures from the past—especially those whose identities may have been shaped by more than one racial or cultural legacy.

Varina’s legacy, like many aspects of the Confederate past, remains tangled in complexities.

As we delve deeper into her life, it’s clear that the answers we seek may be far more intricate than the narratives that have long been accepted. The diary of Lt. James Malbone challenges us to reconsider the assumptions we’ve made about the First Lady of the Confederacy, urging us to explore the hidden layers of history that still have much to teach us today.