Harriott Horry Ravenel
| Harriott Horry Ravenel | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Harriott Horry Rutledge August 12, 1832 Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A. |
| Died | July 2, 1912 (aged 79) Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A. |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Mrs. St. Julien Ravenel; Mrs. H. Hilton Broom |
| Occupation | writer |
| Years active | 1879–1906 |
| Spouse(s) | St. Julien Ravenel |
| Children | Harriott Rutledge (1852) Anna Eliza (1853) John (1856) Lise R. (1857) Edward Rutledge (1859) St. Julien (1861) Frances Gualdo (1865) Francis ('Frank') Gualdo (1869) Helen Lowndes (1872) |
Harriott Horry Rutledge Ravenel (Aug. 12, 1832 – July 2, 1912) was an American writer known for a handful of biographies and histories that focused on the development of South Carolina before the Civil War and were influential in shaping the work of later historians and writers.
Harriott Horry Rutledge was born in Charleston, SC, on August 12, 1832, the only child of Rebecca Motte Lowndes and Edward Cotesworth Rutledge, a naval captain. Her family was well-connected: her mother was the daughter of Congressman William Lowndes, granddaughter of statesman Thomas Pinckney, and great-granddaughter of agriculturalist Eliza Pinckney and judge Charles Pinckney; Eliza Pinckney and William Lowndes would later be the subject of biographies by Ravenel. One of her uncles was herpetologist John Edwards Holbrook.
Ravenel's literary talent is evident in surviving letters she wrote as a child. She was educated at Madame Talvande's private school, housed in the Sword Gate House.
In 1851, she married the American physician and agricultural chemist St. Julien Ravenel, with whom she had nine children. One of her sons, Francis, would marry Charleston poet Beatrice Witte, and their daughter Beatrice St. Julien Ravenel was also a writer.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Ravenel accompanied her husband to Columbia, SC, where he was to take charge of a laboratory to produce medicines for the Confederate States Army. Ravenel's experiences in 1865 trying to save their home from fire when the city burned following the arrival of General Sherman featured in an article, "When Columbia Burned," as well as in one of her books, South Carolina Women in the Confederacy (1903). She was a close friend of Mary Chesnut, who wrote a celebrated Civil War diary.
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