Virginia Clay-Clopton

author

Virginia Clay-Clopton

1825–1915

A sharp observer of public life in the American South, she moved from the world of Washington politics into postwar reform and memoir. Her life touched the Civil War, women's activism, and the social history of the nineteenth century.

1 Audiobook

A Belle of the Fifties Memoirs of Mrs. Clay of Alabama, covering social and political life in Washington and the South, 1853-1866. Put into narrative form by Ada Sterling

A Belle of the Fifties Memoirs of Mrs. Clay of Alabama, covering social and political life in Washington and the South, 1853-1866. Put into narrative form by Ada Sterling

by Virginia Clay-Clopton

About the author

Born Virginia Caroline Tunstall in North Carolina in 1825 and raised in Alabama, she became well known as the wife of Clement Claiborne Clay, who served in the U.S. Senate before joining the Confederate government. During their years in Washington, she was known as a politically connected hostess with a close view of national events.

After the Civil War, she helped campaign for her husband's release from imprisonment and later rebuilt her public life in Alabama. Following his death, she married Judge David Clopton and became active in causes including women's suffrage and memorial organizations for the Confederacy.

She is also remembered as a writer. Her memoir, A Belle of the Fifties, offers a personal account of politics, society, and war-era life from the perspective of a Southern woman who lived through dramatic change.