Blogging from A to Z April Challenge - Letter D

Today is Day 4 of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.

Jefferson Davis was a staunch states' rights Democrat who championed the unrestricted expansion of slavery into the territories. He was raised on the Mississippi frontier, where his family owned a cotton plantation. Elected to the U.S. Congress in 1845, this West Point graduate was later appointed to the Senate after serving in the army during the Mexican War. 

Davis opposed the Missouri Compromise of 1850. In 1853, he was appointed Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, before reentering the Senate in 1857, where he continued to advocate for the spread of slavery into the territories. Davis resigned from the Senate as talk of secession raced through the South. In November of 1861, he was appointed president of the Confederate States of America.

After the Civil War, Davis was tried for treason and was sent to prison for two years. His health deteriorated and, in the years that followed, he found it hard to make a living. Davis refused to take an oath of allegiance to regain his citizenship. He died in 1889. A move to restore his citizenship posthumously was accomplished in 1978, during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.