Born: Unknown (1730s or 1740s), United States
Died: 4 May 1790
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Annie Henry
The following is shared from the Encyclopedia Virginia, in line with the Creative Commons licensing.
Annie Henry Christian was the sister of Patrick Henry and an early settler of the Virginia backcountry, and eventually Kentucky, who wrote the best first-person account of that era of westward migration that survives from any woman. She was born in Hanover Country in the 1730s or early 1740s. Sometime between mid-January and mid-March 1768 she married William Christian. In the first year of their marriage, the Christians lived in the Roanoke River Valley, and in 1770 the Christians moved to what became Fincastle County in 1772. In the spring of 1785, the Christian family moved to Kentucky, traveling along the Wilderness Road, and settled near present-day Louisville. Christian and five of her children returned to Virginia in September 1788 following the death of her husband. She became ill with consumption the following year and died in Norfolk on May 4, 1790.
Christian was born in Hanover County, probably late in the 1730s or early in the 1740s. She was the daughter of Sarah Winston Syme Henry and her second husband, John Henry, a Scottish immigrant. Her siblings included Patrick Henry, orator and governor of Virginia, and Elizabeth Henry Campbell Russell, a Methodist lay leader in Washington County.
The good education Henry received from her parents enabled her to compose during the 1770s and 1780s a series of informative letters written in a clear, steady hand and characterized by the straightforward tone and easy narrative flow of one comfortable with the written word. Sometime between mid-January and mid-March 1768 she married William Christian, who later briefly served on the Council of State. Between 1770 and 1785 they had five daughters and one son. In the first year of their marriage, the Christians lived in the Roanoke River Valley in that part of Augusta County that was organized in 1770 as Botetourt County, where Annie Henry Christian became close to her sister-in-law, Anne Christian Fleming, who lived nearby. In 1770 the Christians moved to Mahanaim in Dunkard’s Bottom, thirty-five miles to the southwest in the area that in 1772 became Fincastle County, and Christian began a correspondence with her sister-in-law that continued for the rest of her life.
Christian was not one of the women politicized by the American Revolution, even though in 1776 she accompanied her husband to Williamsburg, where he was serving as lieutenant colonel and then colonel of the 1st Virginia Regiment. Later that year while he commanded an expedition against the Cherokee on the southwestern frontier of Virginia, she complained to her brother the governor about her husband’s frequent absences from home and the consequent inattention to his own business affairs.
In the spring of 1785 the Christian family, including their children, and an undetermined number of enslaved people moved to Kentucky, but William Christian’s widowed mother turned back before reaching Cumberland Gap. Christian’s letters to her sister-in-law chronicled the trek along the Wilderness Road and her early months in Kentucky and contain the best first-person accounts of that portion of the westward movement that survive from the pen of any woman. Her letters, which her sister-in-law preserved, strongly influenced later generations’ understandings of the effects on women of the westward movement and life on the frontier.
By August 1785 the Christians had settled on Beargrass Creek, near the site of present-day Louisville, Kentucky. Her husband sent some of the enslaved laborers to work in his saltworks, known as Bullitt’s Lick or Saltsburg, near present-day Shepherdsville, Kentucky, before he was killed on April 9, 1786, while participating in an expedition against Native people north of the Ohio River. Christian retreated southeast to near Danville, Kentucky, where she stayed with a sister-in-law, Rosanna Christian Wallace, and her husband Caleb Wallace. Christian settled at Cove Spring, near Danville, in the autumn and moved her five youngest children there. Deciding she would prefer to rent a plantation because it would be less expensive than having to stock and supply her own, she moved again in September 1787. Christian managed the family’s financial affairs with two goals in mind: protecting her children’s inheritances and returning to Virginia.
In September 1788 Christian and five of her children, together with a few enslaved people, returned to Virginia. Her daughters eventually moved back to Kentucky, but it is not certain whether she intended to go back. In the spring of 1789 Christian became ill with consumption, probably tuberculosis. She wrote a will in October of that year, providing for her children, and then sailed to the West Indies in order to recover her health. She apparently spent the winter on the island of Antigua and returned to Virginia in the spring. Annie Henry Christian died in Norfolk on May 4, 1790, shortly after she landed. Family tradition provides contradictory evidence about the place of her burial; in his will her son set aside £400 for erecting a fine tombstone over the grave of his parents at Beargrass Creek.
TIMELINE
1730s or Early 1740s: Annie Henry Christian is born in Hanover County, the daughter of Sarah Winston Syme Henry and her husband John Henry.
Spring 1768: Annie Henry Christian marries William Christian.
1768–1769: Annie Henry Christian and William Christian live in the Roanoke River Valley for the first year of their marriage.
1770: Annie Henry Christian and William Christian move to Mahanaim in Dunkard’s Bottom.
1776: Annie Henry Christian accompanies her husband William Christian to Williamsburg, where he serves as lieutenant colonel and then colonel of the 1st Virginia Regiment.
1776: Annie Henry Christian writes a letter to her brother, Governor Patrick Henry, complaining about her husband’s frequent absences from home.
Spring–Summer 1785: Annie Henry Christian travels with her family and an unknown number of enslaved people along the Wilderness Road to settle on Beargrass Creek near present-day Louisville, Kentucky.
April 9, 1786: William Christian dies during an expedition against Native people north of the Ohio River.
Autumn 1786: Annie Henry Christian settles with five of her children at Cove Spring, near Danville, Kentucky.
September 1788: Annie Henry Christian returns to Virginia with five of her children and several enslaved people.
Winter 1789: Annie Henry Christian spends the winter in Antigua after becoming ill with consumption.
May 4, 1790: Shortly after returning to Virginia, Annie Henry Christian dies in Norfolk.