Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House - Hardcover

When First Lady Varina Davis saw five-year-old Jim Limber being beaten in the street by his guardian, she intervened. When it became clear that the man would not cease his whipping, she decided then and there to put an end to Jim's suffering--she took him home with her!

Soon Jim was part of the Davis family. Jefferson Davis registered Jim as a free black child and became Jim's legal guardian. Jim was treated as a child of the Davises and began a new life as a safe and free boy in the Confederate White House, where he enjoyed the happiest years of his life.

When the Yankee armies attacked Richmond in 1865, they arrested Jefferson Davis, placed the family under house arrest, and kidnapped Jim Limber. They took Jim north and displayed him as a slave of Jefferson Davis, claiming that the scars he received under the hand of his cruel guardian were caused by Jefferson Davis! Although Jim tried to argue against these lies, no one believed him.

Once Jefferson Davis was released from prison, he wrote to people he knew in the North and sent letters to newspapers asking for Jim's whereabouts, but the boy had disappeared. Although the Davis family searched for him for many years, they never found the orphan they had cared for and loved so dearly.

Rickey Pittman, 1998 grand prize winner of the prestigious Ernest Hemingway Short Story Competition, is an active member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He is also a Civil War reenactor, a public speaker on issues and topics related to the War Between the States, and a musician who travels and performs original and Civil War-period music. He has written plays, nonfiction, poetry, and short stories, and he teaches gifted high-school English in northeast Louisiana. He is the proud father of two and grandfather of one.

Illustrator Judith Hierstein resides in Tucson, Arizona, where she teaches digital and video arts at the high-school level. She holds a bachelor's degree in art from the University of Iowa and is the illustrator of Pelican's Toby Belfer Series and The Pilgrims' Thanksgiving from A to Z.