Margaret Kempe Howell

Margaret Louisa Kempe Howell (January 6, 1806 – November 24, 1867) was an American heiress, planter, and slaveowner who was the mother of Confederate First Lady Varina Davis and mother-in-law of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Upon her marriage to the son of New Jersey Governor Richard Howell, her father granted her a dowry of sixty slaves and two thousand acres of land in Mississippi. She and her husband faced financial difficulties throughout their lives and depended on the support of her family. After their plantation was seized by creditors, they rented a mansion known as The Briars from John Perkins Sr. Following the American Civil War, Howell fled to Canada, where she died.