Rebecca Harding Davis, an American writer who anticipated the phenomenon of American literary realism by over two decades, was undeservingly forgotten for almost eighty years after her death (Larson). Only in the early 1970’s the name of Rebecca Davis was rescued from oblivion by the feminist American writer Tillie Olsen who found some of her coverless works in an Omaha junkshop (Lasseter).
Rebecca Harding Davis was born in June 24, 1831 in Alabama but then her family moved to Virginia and settled in Wheeling where Rebecca spent all her childhood and left the town only when she got married (Lasseter). Davis’s parents were conservative and mainly against emerging liberalistic movements in America so they hired tutors for their sons but decided to give Rebecca to a seminary for girls who were taught in a very traditional way preparing them for being good wives, mothers or teachers. However, at this time there were many lecturers who promoted the liberal ideas on human rights and slavery abolition so Rebecca Davis could absorb and explore these thoughts which were subsequently reflected in her writings (Hadley, p.2).
The life in Wheeling had a huge impact on Davis’s writings and determined her attitude toward historical events to which she was exposed being a child and a young girl. Wheeling was a borderland between Western and Eastern Virginia struck by the Civil War at that time so Davis witnessed all the atrocities of slaughters when brother was killing brother and son was killing his father (Cadwallader et al.). So her multiple stories on war vividly and realistically depict dramatic events which took place between 1860 and 1877 when the United States were ideologically and politically divided into two confronting parts (Cadwallader et al., p. 7).
Davis knew this war so well with all its dreadful effects breaking human lives and tearing society into parts that she was completely against romanticizing the War which was rather popular at that time. Living a major part of her life in the epicenter of fierce struggles where the whole families were involved she understood as no one else that the War is the worst thing which may happen to people.
“John Lamar” is among the most renowned stories written by Davis about the Civil War where relationships between Black and White men are shown through the story of the plantation owner John Lamar, his friends and his slaves (Cadwallader et al., p. 12). Davis’s position and attitude toward the Civil War was reflected in these stories and consisted in that living in the borderland she always saw two sides of these events accusing Americans of seeing only the one.
Meanwhile Davis’s most famous work which made her an acclaimed writer and whose success was never eclipsed by her other writings is “Life in the Iron Mills” published in 1861 in “the Atlantic Monthly”. The novella describes the life of iron mill workers exposed to the phenomenon of industrialization and suffering from it. The main character of the story is Hugh Wolfe dreaming of an artistic career but obliged to work all his life in subhuman condition of hellish iron mills. In the end of the novella Wolfe tragically dies due to his struggle for a better life (MacLean).
The immediate success and acclaim of “Life in the Iron Mills” by renowned American writers such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and others was explained by the fact that Davis was one of the first writers who started to talk about industrialization and its dire consequences (Hadley, p.3). Moreover, “Life in the Iron Mills” was a unique writing combining naturalistic psychological delving and realistic descriptions which was quite novel for Davis’s epoch (MacLean).
After the unheard success of her first writing Davis unfortunately could not write something as well groundbreaking and revolutionary as “Life in the Iron Mills”. However, she was very hardworking and produced more than 500 works in her lifetime (Larson).
Apart from war, industrialization, slavery and human rights, Davis wrote plenty of stories on women’ rights and feminism in America. It should be noted that Rebecca Harding Davis was the working mother who was earning the life of her family and taking care of her children which was unheard for her time (Hadley, p.3).
Davis’s attitude toward the role of woman in the society was much influenced and shaped by the life-long confrontation between her and her father who was completely against his daughter’s liberalistic views. Davis’s father who was not cruel, however treated women as servants so Rebecca was always exposed to this humiliating attitude in her family. When she returned home after college, she had to look after her younger brothers and do housework (Hadley, p. 4).
All this depressed much the young talented girl which was subsequently reflected in her autobiography “Bits of Gossip” and many of her stories where multiple female characters are realistically described in light of violation of women’s rights where weak, illiterate women have no other choice but being wives, mothers and servants of their husbands. So in “Paul Blecker” Davis expresses these ideas in Grey’s speech: “No man can understand. . . . A boy can go out and work, in a hundred ways: a girl must marry; it’s her only chance for a livelihood, or a home, or anything to fill her heart with” (Cadwallader et al., p. 16).
Despite of criticizing a lot traditional patriarchal lifestyle and hypocrisy of Christian preachers who were using religion to justify the crimes of the Civil War and violation of human rights, Davis often addresses the Bible her writings adapting its metaphorical canvas to her plots. In many stories and novellas by Davis there are different hints and quotes from the Bible, e.g. Kirby in “Life in the Iron Mills” quotes Pontius Pilate (Hadley, p. 7). Moreover, Davis believes in God and attracts her readers’ attention to the world created by him highlighting its beauty and harmony which are opposed to human injustice and cruelty.
In summary, Rebecca Harding Davis may not be compared to literary giants of American literature such as Howells or Hawthorne. However, her first realistic works contributed to the literary realism development in the United States. Her strong female characters talking to us through centuries about the role of women and their destination in the American society, her personal example of the wife and mother who did not leave career for family and who successfully combined so many social roles provide answers to the questions of modern American society and hence Rebecca Harding Davis remains an interesting and urgent author even in twenty first century.
Works cited
Cadwallader, Robin L., Harris, Sharon, M. Rebecca Harding Davis's Stories of the Civil War Era : Selected Writings From the Borderlands (2010). University of Georgia Press.
Hadley, G. Rebecca Harding Davis: An Introduction to Her Life, Faith, and Literature. Web: http://www.nuis.ac.jp/~hadley/publication/rhd/RHD.htm
Larson, J.L. A Groundbreaking Realist: Rebecca Harding Davis (2016). Web: http://docsouth.unc.edu/highlights/davis.html
Lasseter, J.M. Rebecca Harding Davis: A Biographical Sketch & Bibliography. Web: http://www.lehigh.edu/~dek7/SSAWW/writDavisBio.htm
MacLean, M. Rebecca Harding Davis. Pioneer Author in Realistic Fiction (2011). Web: http://civilwarwomenblog.com/rebecca-harding-davis/
