CHANGING IMAGES:
THREE DEVEREUX
SISTERS
by Terrell Armistead Crow*
The role of women in society has changed dra¬
matically over the last century. The Devereux
family of Halifax County, North Carolina, left
many records (letters, diaries, notes, and the like)
that document some of those changes. This fam¬
ily included six sisters who lived from the
antebellum period through Civil War and
Reconstruction.
Daughters of a well-to-do planter family, these
women received careful instructions during
childhood on the ideal image of woman. This in¬
cluded lessons on sewing, organizing a large
household, cooking, and behaving like a lady.
They also enjoyed the benefits of a governess
who taught them French, English, literature,
music, history, arithmetic, and other subjects.
Their grandfather, John Devereux, described in
1821 the type of woman that the family most ad¬
mired: "A modest diffident and soothing style as
w'ell in writing as in conversation wrhen com¬
bined with simplicity of character and truth are
amongst the finest ornaments of the female
mind. A bold, self assured and positive manner is
the very reverse, and ought to be avoided both
by men and women."
The Civil War overturned this advice in at least
three of the sisters' lives. Catherine (Kate)
Devereux married Patrick Edmondston in 1846.
She kept a diary during the Civil War and stated
in it that women should be submissive, sweet,
and mild. The Civil War, however, forced her to
assume greater and greater control over the fam¬
ily plantation while her husband was away on
war-related duties. Kate also recalled in 1863
how indignant she was with her husband in the
first years of their marriage. Anxious to please
him by running a smooth household, nonethe¬
less, she felt "pained & mortified" at his belief
that "the first duty of woman was to attend to the
cooking." Kate w'ondered to herself whether it
was "for this that you had been educated? . . .
Was it for this that such tastes had been culti¬
vated in you? . . . You were willing enough and
happy in attending to domestic duties . . , but the
pedestal on which he placed them debased all
else. You could not worship at such a shrine!"
When Patrick died shortly after the war,
Catherine refused to give up their farm and
struggled successfully to keep it.
Her sister Mary Bayard Devereux, married to
William J. Clarke of New' Bern, experienced
many changes during and after the w'ar. More
Mary Bayard Clarke (1827-1886), photograph from
oil portrait.
Antebellum. The society and
objects existing before the Civil
War.
Diffident. To be shy, reserved,
or unassertive.
John Devereux (1761-1844), photograph from oil
portrait.
4
āEditor, Tar Heel Junior Historian, North Carolina Museum of History.