Jane Pierce Was More Than a First Lady in Mourning
In Pursuit essay series author spotlights the first lady’s crucial intervention that may have changed the trajectory of the state of Kansas.
The historical narrative around Jane Pierce, the wife of the 14th president of the United States, Franklin Pierce, has long been overshadowed by the horrific death of their 11-year-old son “Bennie” in 1853 as a result of a train accident just weeks before her husband’s inauguration.
The tragic event led future writers to characterize Mrs. Pierce during her tenure as a presidential spouse as an absent and secluded first lady in mourning and in ill health.
But that narrative appears to be incomplete, according to Diana Carlin, co-author of Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of America’s History-Making Women, in a new essay, “Grief Can Narrow a Life–or Deepen Moral Resolve” spotlighting Mrs. Pierce’s contributions for the national initiative—In Pursuit. The bi-partisan initiative, created by the Washington, D.C.-based organization More Perfect, which includes an alliance of 43 presidential …
