Sarah Morgan Dawson
Sarah Morgan Dawson was a notable figure in 19th-century American literature, born in 1842 into a prominent Louisiana family. As the American Civil War unfolded, she began chronicling her experiences in a diary, offering a vivid and personal account of the tumultuous events that shaped the lives of those in the South. An ardent Confederate, Dawson expressed strong emotions about the war's impact on her loved ones while maintaining a level of objectivity in her writing. Her diary stands out as a rare firsthand perspective from the Confederate side, although it was not published in full until after her death. Throughout her life, Dawson was critical of marriage and gender norms, advocating for women's rights through her writings, albeit not in the context of suffrage. In 1874, she married Francis Warrington Dawson, with whom she had three children, though she paused her writing career to focus on motherhood. Following the death of her husband in 1889, she resumed her literary pursuits, including writing children’s books. Sarah Morgan Dawson passed away in Paris in 1909 and is buried in Charleston, South Carolina, leaving behind a legacy as a significant woman writer of her time.
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Subject Terms
Sarah Morgan Dawson
Writer
- Born: February 28, 1842
- Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana
- Died: May 5, 1909
- Place of death: Paris, France
Biography
Sarah Morgan Dawson was born in 1842 into one of the wealthiest and highest-standing families of Louisiana. In 1862, she began writing in her diary as the American Civil War was expanding. An intelligent and quite observant writer, Dawson describes with vivid detail the remarkable events that changed the lives of ordinary people of the war-torn South. An outspoken Confederate who wrote that she was “a rebel, body and soul” and was infuriated by the deaths of close friends and family in the war, Dawson still managed to maintain objectivity in her account of the war. Her diary was not without controversy, though, and she often expressed her negative views of marriage and vowed to never marry. A rare, firsthand account of the war from the losing side, her diary was not published in its entirety until well after her death. Still, it cemented her place as one of the key nineteenth century women writers in the United States.
In 1873 she first met Francis Warrington Dawson, an Englishman who had immigrated to become a Confederate soldier. He encouraged her to write articles for his newspapers, The News, and later The News and Courier, under the pseudonym Mr. Fowler. As Fowler, Dawson lobbied for women’s rights—but not suffrage—and attacked the values of marriage. Despite her disdain for marriage, she wed Francis Dawson in 1874. She had three children with him in Charleston, South Carolina: Ethel, Warrington, and Philip, who died as an infant. When she became a mother, Dawson discontinued her writing career, but after her husband was shot in 1889 she resumed writing and prepared her diary for publication. In 1898, she traveled with her son Warrington to Paris and wrote a few children’s books. She died there in 1909. She is buried in Charleston. Her son Warrington published her diary after amending it; he excluded certain private entries.