ForsythiaJo: +Category:19th-century American landowners; +Category:19th-century American slave owners using HotCat
{{short description|19th-century American planter and slaveowner}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Margaret Kempe Howell
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Margaret Kempe Howell.jpg
| image_upright =
| caption =
| birth_name = Margaret Louisa Kempe
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1806|1|6}}
| birth_place = [[Prince William County, Virginia]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1867|11|24|1806|1|6}}
| death_place = [[Quebec, Canada]]
| resting_place = [[Mount Royal Cemetery|Cimetière Mont-Royal]]
| other_names =
| occupation = heiress, [[planter class|planter]], slave owner
| spouse = William Burr Howell
| children = 11 (including [[Varina Davis]])
| education =
| parents = James Kempe (father)<br>Margaret Graham (mother)
| relatives =
}}
'''Margaret Louisa Kempe Howell''' (January 6, 1806 – November 24, 1867) was an American heiress, planter, and slaveowner. She was the mother of [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] First Lady [[Varina Davis]] and mother-in-law of Confederate President [[Jefferson Davis]].
== Early life and family ==
Howell was born Margaret Louisa Kempe on January 6, 1806 in [[Prince William County, Virginia]] to Colonel James Kempe and Margaret Graham Kempe. Her father, a [[Ulster Scots people|Scots-Irish]] immigrant from [[Ulster]], became a wealthy [[planter class|planter]] and major landowner in Virginia, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Her mother was the illegitimate daughter of George Graham, a Scottish immigrant and planter, and Susanna McAllister, a Virginian woman.<ref>Cashin 2006, p. 15.</ref><ref>Note: According to the 1810 census for Prince William County, George Graham owned 24 slaves, more than many of his neighbors and a quantity that qualified him as a major planter of the period. He had one child under 16 still at home, and was living with a woman over 25. Many of his neighbors had Scottish surnames. Federal Census: Year: 1810; Census Place: Prince William, Virginia; Roll: 70; Page: 278; Image: 0181430; Family History Library Film: 00528.</ref> Howell's father served as an officer in the Mississippi Commands during the [[War of 1812]], commanding a company at [[New Orleans]] and at [[Pensacola]].<ref name= varina>{{cite web |url= https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2001.05.0037:chapter=5|title= Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 1|last= Davis|first= Varina|date= |website= [[Perseus Digital Library]]|publisher= [[Tufts University]]|access-date= April 28, 2024}}</ref>
The Howell family moved from Virginia to Mississippi before 1816 to reside at one of their [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|plantations]].<ref>"Marriage of William B. Howell to Margaret L. Kempe, July 17, 1823, Adams County, Mississippi", Ancestry.com. ''Mississippi Marriages to 1825''[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1997.</ref>
== Adult life ==
In 1823, she married William Burr Howell, the son of New Jersey Governor [[Richard Howell]], in [[Natchez, Mississippi|Natchez]].<ref name= rice/><ref name= libraryofcongress>{{cite web |url= https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-...of the,to William and Margaret Howell.|title= The Civil War in America|author=<!--Not stated-->|website= [[Library of Congress]]|access-date= April 28, 2024}}</ref> Her father gave her a [[dowry]] of two thousand acres of land in Mississippi and sixty slaves.<ref>Cashin 2006, p. 16.</ref> [[Joseph Emory Davis]], a school friend of her's, was a groomsman at the wedding.<ref name= varina/> She later named her first son after him.<ref name= varina/> They had eleven children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. One of her daughters, [[Varina Davis|Varina]], would later marry [[Jefferson Davis]], the brother of Joseph, and serve as First Lady of the [[Confederate States of America]].<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=McIntosh|editor-first=James T.|title=The Papers of Jefferson Davis|year=1974|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|pages=52–53}}</ref>
In 1825, Howell and her husband went north to improve the health of their eldest son, Joseph Davis Howell.<ref name= varina/> The Howells were accompanied by Joseph E. Davis and their child's nurse.<ref name= varina/> They traveled in a carriage led by two horse to the crossing of the [[Ohio River]], where they took a boat to [[Brownsville, Ohio|Brownsville]].<ref name= varina/> During their journey, they met English caricaturist [[George Cruikshank]] and the Indiana politician [[Robert Dale Owen]].<ref name= varina/> They eventually reached New York and visited the young Jefferson Davis at [[United States Military Academy|West Point]].<ref name= varina/>
[[File:Briars near Natchez.jpg|thumb|right|The Briars in Natchez, Mississippi, where Howell and her family lived.]]
Throughout their marriage, Howell's husband worked as a planter, merchant, politician, cotton broker, banker, postmaster, and military commissary manager, but never secured long-term financial stability. The majority of Howell's sizable dowry and her inheritance were lost through her husband's bad investments and the couple's lavish lifestyle. Howell's husband declared bankruptcy in 1875 and the family home, furnishings, and slaves were seized by creditors to be sold at public auction.<ref name="Clarke">[https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2...id=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=56224474143 FRANCES CLARKE, "Review of Cashin, ''First Lady of the Confederacy''"], Harvard University Press, 2006, in ''Australasian Journal of American Studies'', Vol. 27, No. 2 (December 2008), pp. 145–47; retrieved June 1, 2012.</ref> Howell and her husband continued to have financial problems throughout their lives and depended on her wealthy relatives for support.<ref>Cashin 2006, pp. 16-17.</ref> Howell and her family took up residence at [[The Briars (Natchez, Mississippi)|The Briars]], a mansion in Natchez that was leased to them by [[John Perkins Sr.]]<ref name= rice/>
During the [[American Civil War]], Colonel [[John McGavock]] and Carrie Elizabeth Winder McGavock of [[Carnton|Carnton Plantation]] sent one of their pregnant house slaves, [[Mariah Reddick]], to stay with Kempe at her house in [[Montgomery, Alabama]].<ref name="thenewstn">{{Cite web |last=Gilfillan |first=Kelly |date=2015-02-01 |title=WillCo History: Meet Mariah Reddick |url=https://www.thenewstn.com/community...cle_a136ca0c-8847-5ec6-98ac-82ae6ca11787.html |access-date=2024-01-26 |website=The News |language=en}}</ref><ref name="lovely">{{Cite web |last=Buffie |date=2022-03-08 |title=Linda Mora is the "Grave Walker" for Franklin, Tennessee's Cemeteries |url=https://lovelyfranklin.com/meet-lin...d-take-a-tour-of-franklins-oldest-cemeteries/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |website=Lovely Franklin {{!}} Discover Historic Franklin Tennessee |language=en-US}}</ref>
Following the South's defeat in the war, Howell fled to Canada. She helped care for her elder grandchildren while her son-in-law was imprisoned at [[Fort Monroe]].<ref name= rice>{{cite web |url= https://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/peoplelist/margaret-kempe-howell|title= Margaret Kempe Howell (1806-1867)|author=<!--Not stated-->|website= [[Rice University]]|publisher= [[Rice University]]|access-date= April 28, 2024}}</ref>
== Death and legacy ==
Howell died in [[Quebec]] on November 24, 1867. She was buried at [[Mount Royal Cemetery|Cimetière Mont-Royal]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://acwm.pastperfectonline.com/photo/10D9DB05-FB32-494E-BF6A-467211690397|title= Photo Record|author=<!--Not stated-->|website= [[American Civil War Museum]]|publisher= |access-date= April 28, 2024}}</ref> Some of her belongings, including an [[étui]] and a floral needlework [[appliqué]], are housed in the collection of the [[American Civil War Museum]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://acwm.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/992488A7-BFD1-42C3-A2D6-289969497914|title= Object Record|author=<!--Not stated--> |website= [[American Civil War Museum]]|publisher= |access-date= April 28, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://acwm.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/99EEBC4C-5204-4608-BCA6-689525812886|title= Object Record|author=<!--Not stated--> |website= [[American Civil War Museum]]|publisher= |access-date= April 28, 2024}}</ref>
== Works cited ==
* Cashin, Joan (2006). ''First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis's Civil War,'' Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of [[Harvard University Press]]
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howell, Margaret Kempe}}
[[Category:1806 births]]
[[Category:1867 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American landowners]]
[[Category:19th-century American planters]]
[[Category:19th-century American slave owners]]
[[Category:19th-century American women landowners]]
[[Category:American expatriates in Canada]]
[[Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent]]
[[Category:American refugees]]
[[Category:American socialites]]
[[Category:American women slave owners]]
[[Category:Burials at Mount Royal Cemetery]]
[[Category:Jefferson Davis family]]
[[Category
eople from Prince William County, Virginia]]
[[Category:Women in the American Civil War]]
Okumaya devam et...
{{short description|19th-century American planter and slaveowner}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Margaret Kempe Howell
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Margaret Kempe Howell.jpg
| image_upright =
| caption =
| birth_name = Margaret Louisa Kempe
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1806|1|6}}
| birth_place = [[Prince William County, Virginia]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1867|11|24|1806|1|6}}
| death_place = [[Quebec, Canada]]
| resting_place = [[Mount Royal Cemetery|Cimetière Mont-Royal]]
| other_names =
| occupation = heiress, [[planter class|planter]], slave owner
| spouse = William Burr Howell
| children = 11 (including [[Varina Davis]])
| education =
| parents = James Kempe (father)<br>Margaret Graham (mother)
| relatives =
}}
'''Margaret Louisa Kempe Howell''' (January 6, 1806 – November 24, 1867) was an American heiress, planter, and slaveowner. She was the mother of [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] First Lady [[Varina Davis]] and mother-in-law of Confederate President [[Jefferson Davis]].
== Early life and family ==
Howell was born Margaret Louisa Kempe on January 6, 1806 in [[Prince William County, Virginia]] to Colonel James Kempe and Margaret Graham Kempe. Her father, a [[Ulster Scots people|Scots-Irish]] immigrant from [[Ulster]], became a wealthy [[planter class|planter]] and major landowner in Virginia, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Her mother was the illegitimate daughter of George Graham, a Scottish immigrant and planter, and Susanna McAllister, a Virginian woman.<ref>Cashin 2006, p. 15.</ref><ref>Note: According to the 1810 census for Prince William County, George Graham owned 24 slaves, more than many of his neighbors and a quantity that qualified him as a major planter of the period. He had one child under 16 still at home, and was living with a woman over 25. Many of his neighbors had Scottish surnames. Federal Census: Year: 1810; Census Place: Prince William, Virginia; Roll: 70; Page: 278; Image: 0181430; Family History Library Film: 00528.</ref> Howell's father served as an officer in the Mississippi Commands during the [[War of 1812]], commanding a company at [[New Orleans]] and at [[Pensacola]].<ref name= varina>{{cite web |url= https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2001.05.0037:chapter=5|title= Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 1|last= Davis|first= Varina|date= |website= [[Perseus Digital Library]]|publisher= [[Tufts University]]|access-date= April 28, 2024}}</ref>
The Howell family moved from Virginia to Mississippi before 1816 to reside at one of their [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|plantations]].<ref>"Marriage of William B. Howell to Margaret L. Kempe, July 17, 1823, Adams County, Mississippi", Ancestry.com. ''Mississippi Marriages to 1825''[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1997.</ref>
== Adult life ==
In 1823, she married William Burr Howell, the son of New Jersey Governor [[Richard Howell]], in [[Natchez, Mississippi|Natchez]].<ref name= rice/><ref name= libraryofcongress>{{cite web |url= https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-...of the,to William and Margaret Howell.|title= The Civil War in America|author=<!--Not stated-->|website= [[Library of Congress]]|access-date= April 28, 2024}}</ref> Her father gave her a [[dowry]] of two thousand acres of land in Mississippi and sixty slaves.<ref>Cashin 2006, p. 16.</ref> [[Joseph Emory Davis]], a school friend of her's, was a groomsman at the wedding.<ref name= varina/> She later named her first son after him.<ref name= varina/> They had eleven children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. One of her daughters, [[Varina Davis|Varina]], would later marry [[Jefferson Davis]], the brother of Joseph, and serve as First Lady of the [[Confederate States of America]].<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=McIntosh|editor-first=James T.|title=The Papers of Jefferson Davis|year=1974|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|pages=52–53}}</ref>
In 1825, Howell and her husband went north to improve the health of their eldest son, Joseph Davis Howell.<ref name= varina/> The Howells were accompanied by Joseph E. Davis and their child's nurse.<ref name= varina/> They traveled in a carriage led by two horse to the crossing of the [[Ohio River]], where they took a boat to [[Brownsville, Ohio|Brownsville]].<ref name= varina/> During their journey, they met English caricaturist [[George Cruikshank]] and the Indiana politician [[Robert Dale Owen]].<ref name= varina/> They eventually reached New York and visited the young Jefferson Davis at [[United States Military Academy|West Point]].<ref name= varina/>
[[File:Briars near Natchez.jpg|thumb|right|The Briars in Natchez, Mississippi, where Howell and her family lived.]]
Throughout their marriage, Howell's husband worked as a planter, merchant, politician, cotton broker, banker, postmaster, and military commissary manager, but never secured long-term financial stability. The majority of Howell's sizable dowry and her inheritance were lost through her husband's bad investments and the couple's lavish lifestyle. Howell's husband declared bankruptcy in 1875 and the family home, furnishings, and slaves were seized by creditors to be sold at public auction.<ref name="Clarke">[https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2...id=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=56224474143 FRANCES CLARKE, "Review of Cashin, ''First Lady of the Confederacy''"], Harvard University Press, 2006, in ''Australasian Journal of American Studies'', Vol. 27, No. 2 (December 2008), pp. 145–47; retrieved June 1, 2012.</ref> Howell and her husband continued to have financial problems throughout their lives and depended on her wealthy relatives for support.<ref>Cashin 2006, pp. 16-17.</ref> Howell and her family took up residence at [[The Briars (Natchez, Mississippi)|The Briars]], a mansion in Natchez that was leased to them by [[John Perkins Sr.]]<ref name= rice/>
During the [[American Civil War]], Colonel [[John McGavock]] and Carrie Elizabeth Winder McGavock of [[Carnton|Carnton Plantation]] sent one of their pregnant house slaves, [[Mariah Reddick]], to stay with Kempe at her house in [[Montgomery, Alabama]].<ref name="thenewstn">{{Cite web |last=Gilfillan |first=Kelly |date=2015-02-01 |title=WillCo History: Meet Mariah Reddick |url=https://www.thenewstn.com/community...cle_a136ca0c-8847-5ec6-98ac-82ae6ca11787.html |access-date=2024-01-26 |website=The News |language=en}}</ref><ref name="lovely">{{Cite web |last=Buffie |date=2022-03-08 |title=Linda Mora is the "Grave Walker" for Franklin, Tennessee's Cemeteries |url=https://lovelyfranklin.com/meet-lin...d-take-a-tour-of-franklins-oldest-cemeteries/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |website=Lovely Franklin {{!}} Discover Historic Franklin Tennessee |language=en-US}}</ref>
Following the South's defeat in the war, Howell fled to Canada. She helped care for her elder grandchildren while her son-in-law was imprisoned at [[Fort Monroe]].<ref name= rice>{{cite web |url= https://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/peoplelist/margaret-kempe-howell|title= Margaret Kempe Howell (1806-1867)|author=<!--Not stated-->|website= [[Rice University]]|publisher= [[Rice University]]|access-date= April 28, 2024}}</ref>
== Death and legacy ==
Howell died in [[Quebec]] on November 24, 1867. She was buried at [[Mount Royal Cemetery|Cimetière Mont-Royal]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://acwm.pastperfectonline.com/photo/10D9DB05-FB32-494E-BF6A-467211690397|title= Photo Record|author=<!--Not stated-->|website= [[American Civil War Museum]]|publisher= |access-date= April 28, 2024}}</ref> Some of her belongings, including an [[étui]] and a floral needlework [[appliqué]], are housed in the collection of the [[American Civil War Museum]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://acwm.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/992488A7-BFD1-42C3-A2D6-289969497914|title= Object Record|author=<!--Not stated--> |website= [[American Civil War Museum]]|publisher= |access-date= April 28, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://acwm.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/99EEBC4C-5204-4608-BCA6-689525812886|title= Object Record|author=<!--Not stated--> |website= [[American Civil War Museum]]|publisher= |access-date= April 28, 2024}}</ref>
== Works cited ==
* Cashin, Joan (2006). ''First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis's Civil War,'' Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of [[Harvard University Press]]
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howell, Margaret Kempe}}
[[Category:1806 births]]
[[Category:1867 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American landowners]]
[[Category:19th-century American planters]]
[[Category:19th-century American slave owners]]
[[Category:19th-century American women landowners]]
[[Category:American expatriates in Canada]]
[[Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent]]
[[Category:American refugees]]
[[Category:American socialites]]
[[Category:American women slave owners]]
[[Category:Burials at Mount Royal Cemetery]]
[[Category:Jefferson Davis family]]
[[Category
eople from Prince William County, Virginia]][[Category:Women in the American Civil War]]
Okumaya devam et...