Mrs. Norman V. Randolph
“Mrs. Norman V. Randolph,” A Souvenir Book of the Jefferson Davis Memorial Association and the Unveiling of the Monument, Richmond, Va., June 3rd, 1907. Richmond, Whittet & Shepperson, 1907. The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Janet Weaver was born in Warrenton, a small town in northern Virginia, in 1848. She was about two weeks shy of her thirteenth birthday when South Carolina fired on Fort Sumter and the Civil War began. Over the next four years, she saw the conflict come painfully close to home. Her beloved father joined the Confederate Army and died of typhoid fever. Her mother traveled to Pennsylvania to ask relatives for financial help but was arrested for spying and later jailed for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. Warrenton was invaded many times during the war, and Janet grew accustomed to the sound of enemy soldiers on horseback, their sabers clattering just below the window of her room. Union soldiers pulled up the simple wooden crosses Janet and her friends made to mark new Confederate graves and used them for firewood.
When the Confederacy was defeated in 1865, seventeen-year-old Janet wrote to a friend, “Oh! The thought is sickening . . . that we should have to submit to the hated yankees, the very thought makes my blood run cold.”
In 1880 Janet married Norman V. Randolph, a Confederate veteran and widower with two young children. They moved to Richmond, Virginia, where they both took part in a wave of activities that glorified the Confederacy and rewrote the story of the Civil War. The version of history they and their peers promoted stated that the South was blameless in the war, Reconstruction was a mistake, and white Southerners were justified in stripping away the rights of Black Americans. Today, historians commonly refer to this as the Lost Cause narrative. It was a story white Southerners like Janet wanted to believe in.
The Lost Cause narrative was widely accepted throughout the US, where a lot of white Americans were uncomfortable with the idea of Black Americans having equal rights. But it was especially important in Richmond, which had been the capital of the Confederacy during the war. In 1890 a soaring monument was erected to Robert E. Lee, the former commander of the Confederate forces. By then plans were already underway for another monument to honor Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy. Norman Randolph was named to the all-male association charged with making the monument a reality. Janet was one of many white Southern women who added their enthusiastic support.
While Norman worked on the Davis monument, Janet took on her own public responsibilities. The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) was formed in 1894 as an association of women descendants of Confederate veterans. Janet started the Richmond chapter in 1896. The UDC was another arm of the movement to push the Lost Cause narrative. The organization drew inspiration from Winnie Davis, the daughter of Jefferson Davis. To become a member, a woman had to prove she was related to someone who had served in the Confederacy. For white Southern women, membership was a mark of honor. Janet was the popular president of the Richmond chapter, and many considered her an inspiration.
“Janet proved her dedication to the Confederacy and its heroes year after year.”
Norman’s committee chose to build the Davis monument a few blocks away from the Lee monument on a boulevard that became known as Monument Avenue. However, by 1899 the efforts had stalled. The cornerstone had been laid in 1896 and a designer had been selected, but construction was on hold because of a shortage of money. Norman finally suggested the committee ask the UDC to take over the fundraising effort. The UDC agreed, and Janet led the campaign.
Janet took a brief leave from her work in late 1902, probably to care for Norman, who was seriously ill. He died the following March. Janet dressed in head-to-toe black for the rest of her life. This was common among UDC widows. The mourning clothes were a visual embodiment of what they, and the South, had suffered. This collective, enduring grief was the driving force behind much of the Lost Cause movement.
When she returned to work, Janet continued to seek donations from Southerners for the Jefferson Davis monument. She leaned especially hard on the United Confederate Veterans. She told them firmly that contributing was their duty. It was hard to turn down an imposing widow seeking to honor the only president of the Confederacy. Personal donations poured in, and the work went forward.
The unveiling and dedication of the Jefferson Davis monument was an elaborate five-day event, and the United Confederate Veterans held their annual meeting during the festivities. The city filled with gray-haired men wearing their faded military uniforms. The meeting included several days of parades, music, fireworks, entertainment, and prayer. On the final day, June 3, the Grand Parade began just before noon. The governor of Virginia and Richmond’s mayor both spoke to a crowd of about 100,000 people. At 2 p.m. the fabric that had kept the statue of Jefferson Davis hidden from public view was removed by members of Davis’s family. The inscription at the base of the statue acclaimed Jefferson Davis as the “Exponent of Constitutional Principles — Defender of the Rights of States.” It made no mention of slavery.
Janet proved her dedication to the Confederacy and its heroes year after year. But she opposed UDC plans to build monuments that glorified slavery. Janet recommended that the UDC use the money to support social services for poor Black communities instead. Janet worked with Maggie Walker, one of the leaders of Richmond’s Black community, to provide services for the city’s Black Americans. But she never spoke out against the denial of basic constitutional rights during the long era of Jim Crow.
Janet served as president of the Richmond chapter of the UDC until her death in 1927.
Vocabulary
- Confederacy: The name for the new country formed when the Southern states seceded from the United States during the Civil War.
- Confederate Army: The army representing the Southern states that seceded from the United States during the Civil War.
- Reconstruction: The years between 1865 and 1877 when the federal government actively sought to reincorporate the former Confederacy back into the United States and integrate Black Americans into the nation’s economics, politics, and society.
- Union Army: The army representing the United States during the Civil War.
Discussion Questions
- How did Janet Randolph’s childhood experience of the Civil War inform her choices as an adult?
- What is the Lost Cause narrative? Why was this narrative popular in the US after the Civil War?
- How did Janet Randolph support the spread of the Lost Cause narrative?
- Janet Randolph’s main contribution to history is spreading a false narrative about the Civil War. Why is this a story worth knowing? What conflicts or contradictions does her story highlight?
Suggested Activities
- Combine this life story with any of the following for a larger lesson about the propagation and impact of the Lost Cause narrative.
- To deepen student understanding of the way white Southern women responded to the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction, pair this life story with the story of Ellen Gertrude Clanton Thomas.
- To challenge Janet Randolph’s perceptions of race in questions of identity and activism in this period, pair this life story with any or all of the following resources:
Themes
ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE; AMERICAN IDENTITY AND CITIZENSHIP
