Sara Agnes Rice Pryor

Sara Agnes Rice Pryor
Sara Agnes Rice Pryor
Born	February 19, 1830 Halifax County, Virginia
Died	February 15, 1912 Essex County, New Jersey
Nationality	American
Spouse(s)	Roger Atkinson Pryor
Children	Maria Gordon Pryor Theodorick Bland Pryor Roger Atkinson Pryor Mary Blair Pryor William Rice Pryor Lucy Atkinson Pryor Francesca (Fanny) Theodora Bland Pryor
Parent(s)	Samuel Blair Rice Lucinda Walton Leftwich

Sara Agnes Rice Pryor, born Sara Agnes Rice (February 19, 1830–February 15, 1912), was an American writer and community activist in New York City. Born in Virginia, she moved north after the American Civil War with her husband and family to rebuild their life. He was a former politician and Confederate general; together they became influential in New York society, among numerous "Confederate carpetbaggers" after the war.

Mrs. Pryor was among founders of a home for women and children in Brooklyn, New York. She helped found heritage organizations including Preservation of the Virginia Antiquities, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Mary Washington Memorial Association, and the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. She was active in fundraising to support their goals.

Mrs. Pryor published two histories, two memoirs of the Civil War years, and novels by the Macmillan Company in the early 1900s. Her first memoir was recommended by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which encouraged southern women writers to defend the southern cause. Her memoirs have been sources for historians on the life of her society during and after the war years.

Sara Agnes Rice was born in Halifax County, Virginia to Samuel Blair Rice, a Baptist preacher, and his second wife, Lucinda Walton Leftwich (1807–1855), who had more than 10 children together. At about the age of three, Sara was effectively adopted by her childless aunt, Mary Blair Hargrave, and her husband, Dr. Samuel Pleasants Hargrave, and lived mostly with this couple in Hanover, Virginia. They were slaveholders. When she was about eight, they moved to Charlottesville seeking a better education for her.