James Henry Hammond

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James Henry Hammond
60th Governor of South Carolina
In office December 8, 1842 – December 7, 1844
Lieutenant	Isaac Donnom Witherspoon
Preceded by	John Peter Richardson II
Succeeded by	William Aiken
Born	November 15, 1807 (1807-11-15) Newberry County, South Carolina
Died	November 13, 1864 (aged 56) Beech Island, South Carolina
Political party	Democratic, Nullifier
Spouse	Catherine Fitzsimmons Hammond
Profession	Politician, Lawyer, Publisher, Teacher

James Henry Hammond (November 15, 1807 – November 13, 1864) was a politician from South Carolina. He served as a United States Representative from 1835 to 1836, Governor of South Carolina from 1842 to 1844, and United States Senator from 1857 to 1860. He was the brother-in-law of Wade Hampton II and uncle of Wade Hampton III.

[edit] Biography

Hammond graduated from South Carolina College in 1825, going on to teach school, write for a newspaper and study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1828 and started a practice in Columbia, South Carolina. He established a newspaper in South Carolina in support of nullification and was also a planter. He served in the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Nullifier Party from 1835 until his resignation the next year due to ill health. After spending two years in Europe, he returned to South Carolina and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He served as Governor of South Carolina from 1842 to 1844 and in the United States Senate, following the death of Andrew P. Butler, from 1857 until his resignation in 1860 in light of South Carolina's secession from the Union.

A Democrat, Hammond was perhaps best known during his lifetime as an outspoken defender of slavery and states' rights. It was Hammond who coined the phrase that "Cotton is King" in an 1858 speech to the Senate. In 1839, he purchased a young female slave with an infant daughter. He took the woman as his mistress and fathered several of her children before replacing her with her twelve-year-old daughter. His other slaves fared no better. It was reported, in 1841, that seventy-eight of his chattel died in a ten-year period.

His Secret and Sacred Diaries reveal that his appetites did not end there. He describes, without embarrassment, his 'familiarities and dalliances' with four teenage nieces. He blamed the seductiveness of the “extremely affectionate” young women. His father, Elisha Hammond, pushed him hard, regarding him as a genius. Possibly the main lesson he learned from his father was not to marry a woman with a large potential inheritance. That proved to be an undependable way to acquire wealth for his father. Instead, James found himself a young, unattractive woman named Catherine Fitzsimmons with a considerable dowry. Fitzsimmons' sister, Ann, was the wife of Wade Hampton II.

His mansion in Beech Island, South Carolina, Redcliffe [1], represents his ideal of the perfectly run plantation. [2]

Hammond School in Columbia, South Carolina is named after him. Founded in 1966, originally as a white-flight school, it was originally named James H. Hammond Academy, but has sinced dropped the full name of the man whose family donated the money for the school's start in an effort to stamp out the school's racist background.

[edit] See also

• Mudsill Theory

[edit] Further reading

• Faust, Drew Gilpin, 'James Henry Hammond and the Old South,' Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge and London, 1982, ISBN 0-8071-1048-5

• Bleser, Carol, Editor, 'Secret and Sacred, The Diaries of James Henry Hammond, a Southern Slaveholder,' Oxford University Press, New York, 1988, ISBN 0-19-505308-7

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

James Henry Hammond

• James Henry Hammond at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Defense of Slavery Biography on James Henry Hammond
• Cotton is King speech before Congress
• James Henry Hammond advocates slavery
• SCIway Biography of James Henry Hammond
• NGA Biography of James Henry Hammond

1. ^ Note: South Carolina seceded from the Union in 1860. Seat declared vacant until Frederick A. Sawyer was elected after South Carolina's readmission into the Union in 1870.

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