Sara Agnes Rice Pryor

Sara Agnes Rice Pryor, born Sara Agnes Rice (February 19, 1830 – February 15, 1912), was an American writer and community activist in New York City. Born and reared in Virginia, she moved north after the American Civil War with her husband and family to rebuild their life. He was a former politician and Confederate general; together, they became influential in New York society, which included numerous "Confederate carpetbaggers" after the war. After settling in New York, she and her husband renounced the Confederacy. Pryor co-founded a home for women and children in Brooklyn, New York. Pryor helped found heritage organizations, including Preservation of the Virginia Antiquities, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the National Mary Washington Memorial Association, and the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. She was active in fundraising to support their goals. She was a central figure in fundraising for a yellow fever outbreak to benefit children in Jacksonville, Florida. In the early 1900s, Pryor published two histories, two memoirs of the Civil War era, and novels with the Macmillan Company. The United Daughters of the Confederacy recommended her first memoir, which encouraged southern women writers to defend Southern chivalry. Her memoirs have been sources for historians on the life of her society during and after the war.