The Shadow Tsarina
Duchess Marie “Miechen” Alexandrine Elisabeth Eleonore of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1854-1920) let it be known early on that she was a force to be reckoned with. Her mother, who died when Miechen was eight, left her with advice she rarely followed: “You must behave so you will be forgiven for being a duchess.” Chafing at life in a picturesque but poor minor German duchy, she saw her ticket out when she met Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, brother of Tsar Alexander III. With Vladimir equally smitten, Miechen didn’t hesitate ditching her hapless fiancé, Prince George Schwartzburg, to embark on a three-year courtship securing the first of many personal victories. She dared defy tradition by refusing to covert from Lutheranism to Russian Orthodoxy and set a...
Read MoreThe Lovely Bones
Arguably the most famous and iconic plantation ruin in the South, twenty-three pillars are all that remain of Windsor, a home so grandiose in its heyday that Mississippi steamboat captains used it as a landmark. It’s haunting under any circumstances, more so when glimpsed through a dense morning fog, emerging as a series of vertical phantoms which slowly morph into great columns supporting only thin air. The evocative stone skeleton holds a preponderant sense of time lost and forgotten and, with minimal surrender, conjures images of what was. Indeed, no one knew what Windsor actually looked like until an accidental discovery late in the last century. Located below Port Gibson, Mississippi, Windsor was begun in 1859 and finished two years later. On a...
Read MoreThe Black Swan
In celebration of Black History Month, I salute Elizabeth Greenfield (1819-1876), a Mississippi slave whose golden voice was her ticket to freedom. Born on a Natchez, Mississippi, plantation, Elizabeth was taken as an infant to Philadelphia by her owner, Holliday Greenfield. After joining the Society of Friends (Quakers), Mrs. Greenfield freed and adopted her charge. As Elizabeth grew up and showed a natural flair for singing, she astonished Mrs. Greenfield with the power and range of her voice and her self-taught skills on the guitar. Recognizing a remarkable talent, Mrs. Greenfield sought formal training, but could find no Philadelphia voice coach willing to jeopardize his professional reputation with a student of color, even at three times the going rate of...
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