In a beautiful portrait photograph taken by J.H. Pope of Baltimore, Ellen Barnes McGinnis appears as a well-dressed, biracial lady with carefully coiffed hair and a serene disposition. Who was this woman who spent the last year of the War working in the Confederate White House as a maid to Varina Davis and as a nurse to her last child Varina Anne, “Winnie”? Most importantly, was she enslaved or free?
n Search of Ellen Barnes McGinnis BY KELLY HANCOCK 1 2 FA L L 2 0 1 9
