Constance Cary Harrison
Constance Cary Harrison was a notable American author and social figure, recognized for her connections to significant historical figures and her exploration of complex themes surrounding the American South. Born in Kentucky to a family with aristocratic lineage that included ties to Thomas Jefferson, she experienced a privileged upbringing. Following her father's death, her family moved to Northern Virginia, where Harrison's education was nurtured through a French governess and a boarding school in Richmond. During the Civil War, she became an active participant in society's efforts to aid wounded Confederate soldiers, interacting with prominent Confederate leaders such as Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.
Harrison's literary work is categorized within the plantation novel genre, with her 1890 book, *Flower de Hundred: The Story of a Virginia Plantation*, reflecting both an examination and critique of slavery's impact on Southern society. Her later memoir, *Recollections Grave and Gay*, published in 1911, offered a more direct condemnation of the Confederacy's stance on slavery. Harrison’s life and writings provide insight into the contradictions and complexities of Southern identity during a transformative period in American history. She passed away in 1920 in Washington, D.C.
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Subject Terms
Constance Cary Harrison
Author
- Born: April 25, 1843
- Birthplace: Lexington, Kentucky
- Died: November 21, 1920
- Place of death: Washington, D.C.
Biography
Constance Cary Harrison could trace her ancestry to a Scottish lord, Thomas Jefferson, and several prominent Americans. Born in Kentucky to parents with deep Virginian roots, Harrison enjoyed an aristocratic, and therefore privileged, upbringing. After her father, a lawyer, died, her mother, Monimia Fairfax, moved the family to Northern Virginia, to the Fairfax ancestral home. Harrison had a French governess and was later sent to boarding school in Richmond.
Richmond was later to offer the Harrison and her mother sanctuary during the Civil War. Although active in aiding the wounded Confederate soldiers, Harrison and her cousins were, nevertheless, integral members of Richmond society, and hence traveled in circles that brought her in contact with Confederate figures such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis. Harrison fell in love with Jefferson Davis’s secretary Burton Norvell Harrison, but their marriage waited until 1867, after Harrison had returned from a year in France with her mother.
Given Harrison’s proximity to American high society, the appearance of historical figures in her work suggested more than a measure of accuracy in their portrayal. Classified in the plantation novel genre, Flower de Hundred: The Story of a Virginia Plantation, published in 1890, had the paradoxical themes of being both a reasoning of the institution of slavery, and a condemnation of it as a millstone that dragged down Southern development. Recollections Grave and Gay, Harrison’s 1911 memoir, offered a more strident indictment of the Confederacy’s insistence on slavery as a defensible tradition. Harrison died in Washington, D.C., in 1920.