Sara Agnes Rice Pryor | |
|---|---|
 Sara Agnes Rice Pryor | |
| Born | (1830-02-19)February 19, 1830 |
| Died | February 15, 1912(1912-02-15) (aged 81) |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Maria Gordon Pryor Theodorick Bland Pryor Roger Atkinson Pryor Mary Blair Pryor William Rice Pryor Lucy Atkinson Pryor Francesca (Fanny) Theodora Bland Pryor |
| Parent(s) | Samuel Blair Rice Lucinda Walton Leftwich |
Sara Agnes Rice Pryor, bornSara Agnes Rice (February 19, 1830 – February 15, 1912), was an American writer and community activist in New York City. Born and reared inVirginia, she moved north after theAmerican Civil War with her husband and family to rebuild their life. He was a former politician andConfederate general; together, they became influential in New York society, which included numerous "Confederatecarpetbaggers" after the war. After settling in New York, she and her husband renounced the Confederacy.
Pryor co-founded a home for women and children inBrooklyn, New York. Pryor helped found heritage organizations, includingPreservation of the Virginia Antiquities, theDaughters of the American Revolution, theNational Mary Washington Memorial Association, and theNational Society of the Colonial Dames of America. She was active in fundraising to support their goals. She was a central figure in fundraising for ayellow fever outbreak to benefit children inJacksonville, Florida.[1]
In the early 1900s, Pryor published two histories, two memoirs of the Civil War era, and novels with theMacmillan Company. TheUnited Daughters of the Confederacy recommended her first memoir, which encouragedsouthern women writers to defendSouthern chivalry. Her memoirs have been sources for historians on the life of her society during and after the war.
Sara Agnes Rice was born inHalifax County, Virginia, to Samuel Blair Rice,[2] a Baptist preacher, and his second wife, Lucinda Walton Leftwich (1807–1855); they had more than ten children together. At about the age of three, Sara was effectively adopted by her childless aunt, Mary Blair Hargrave, and her husband, Dr. Samuel Pleasants Hargrave, and lived mostly with this couple inHanover, Virginia.[3] The aunt and uncle were enslavers.[4] When Sara was about eight, the Hargraves moved to Charlottesville to seek a better education for her.[5]
On her father's side, Sara was a granddaughter of William Rice of "Greenwood", Charlotte County, Virginia, and his wife Mary Bacon Crenshaw. She was a great-granddaughter ofDavid Rice, a Presbyterian minister in Kentucky, and his wife, Mary Blair. Sara named one of her daughters "Mary Blair" in keeping with her grandfather William's wish to honor the original Mary Blair, his mother.[6] David Rice acted as clergyman and orator to the Hanover militia in 1775. He was a member of the 1792 convention that framed the firstConstitution of Kentucky.
On her mother's side, she was a granddaughter of Rev. William Leftwich and Frances Otey and a great-granddaughter of Col. John Otey, ofBedford, Virginia, and his wife Mary Hopkins. Col. John Otey served as colonel and captain of a battalion of riflemen. Also a descendant of Col. William Leftwich,Samuel Blair, and Maj. Gen.Joel Leftwich.[7]
On November 8, 1848, Sara Agnes Rice marriedRoger Atkinson Pryor of a Virginia Tidewater family. A journalist, Roger became a politician. Roger was elected to both the US Congress and the Confederate Congress after Virginia'ssecession. Although the Pryors did not enslave people, each had grown up in enslaving families. Roger advocated for slavery with fiery speeches before the American Civil War. After the war, Roger publicly expressed his regret for supporting the Confederacy.
Sara and Roger A. Pryor had seven children, the last born after the war.[8]
When Roger joined theConfederate States Army as a commissioned officer, Pryor traveled with his company and worked as a nurse.[2] Their children were likely cared for by Roger's family living in Petersburg. After Roger resigned his commission to joinFitzhugh Lee's cavalry, Pryor returned to Petersburg to keep their family together.[2]
After the war, Roger moved to New York, where heread law and started a new law practice. Pryor and the children joined him, moving toBrooklyn Heights in 1868.[13] Pryor's second memoir describes their struggle through ten years of relative poverty (Pryor always had a domestic servant, first a former slave from Virginia, who returned to the Southern United States, and then an Irish woman).[13] Pryor sewed her children's clothes, enrolled the younger girls at the Packer School, borrowed money from a family friend using Roger's war silver as collateral, and helped Roger with his legal studies.[13]
The couple became prominent among some influential southerners in New York, who were known as "Confederate carpetbaggers."[14]
Pryor became active in the social life of New York City in the late nineteenth century. Pryor and her friends noted the struggle of the thousands of women and children immigrating to the city. With other women in Brooklyn Heights, Pryor raised money to create a home for women and children in need. Pryor's petition to the state legislature granted the group $10,000 toward purchasing a building in Brooklyn. After fundraising an additional $20,000, the women started the home in the 1870s.[13]
In her memoir, Pryor noted that following the 1889United States Centennial celebration in New York, interest greatly increased in historical items, buildings, and collections. Pryor helped found and develop the following organizations, at a time when fraternal, civic, and lineage societies were forming quickly:
She organized a New York DAR chapter. Among her fundraising activities, Pryor wrote that she "managed a great ball at theWhite Sulphur Springs to help build a monument overMary Washington's grave."[15]
Pryor also became a productive writer, having kept journals for years and using them as a basis for her two memoirs published in the early twentieth century.[16] She joined other Southern women at the time who began to publish work reflecting their own experiences and "contributed to the public discourse about the war."[16] Nearly a dozen memoirs by Southern women were published around the turn of the century.[17] Pryor's status as the wife of a Confederate officer and politician gave her legitimacy. TheUnited Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) encouraged southern women to write about their experiences and publish their work, which enlarged their cultural power.[16] In herReminiscences of Peace and War (1904), Pryor wrote about antebellum society, but she also defended the Confederacy, as did fellow writersVirginia Clay-Clopton andLouise Wigfall Wright. The UDC recommended the works of these three for serious study by other women.[16]
Like her husband in his speeches[18] Pryorargued the war had nothing to do with slavery, suggesting that the average Confederate combatant fought to resist an invasion by the North. After noting that most Confederates were not enslavers, she wrote, "His quarrel was a sectional one and he fought for his section."[16]
In addition, Pryor wrote two histories and several novels, all published byThe Macmillan Company in the early 1900s. Perhaps because of her status in New York, she had continued success in getting her books published at a time when Southern women writers had difficulty achieving this.[16] Her memoirs have been important sources for historians.[2] In the late 20th century, writer John C. Waugh drew extensively from her works for his joint biography of the Pryors:Surviving the Confederacy: Rebellion, Ruin, and Recovery: Roger and Sara Pryor during the Civil War (2002), which was also a social history of their circle.
After her death, Sara Agnes Rice Pryor was buried at Princeton Cemetery, near her sons Theodorick and William. Her husband and their daughter, Mary Blair (Pryor) Walker, were also buried there after their deaths.[19]
Pryor's prominence in the Washington political scene is documented inCapital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington (2015), byCokie Roberts.[20] Pryor's influence on naming female descendants after her ancestor Mary Blair is documented inMary Blair Destiny (2019), by 3xgreat-granddaughter, Erin L. Richman.[19]
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