author
Jefferson Davis
1808–1889
A West Point graduate, Mexican-American War veteran, and U.S. senator who became the only president of the Confederate States during the Civil War. His life remains central to understanding the politics of secession, slavery, defeat, and memory in 19th-century America.
3 Audiobooks
Speeches of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi; delivered during the summer of 1858.
by Jefferson Davis
The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Volume 1
by Jefferson Davis
The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Volume 2
by Jefferson Davis
About the author
Before the Civil War, he built a long public career as a soldier and politician. He graduated from West Point, served in the Black Hawk War and the Mexican-American War, represented Mississippi in Congress, and later became U.S. secretary of war under President Franklin Pierce.
He is best known for leading the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865. In that role, he was the Confederacy's only president and a leading defender of the Southern slaveholding order, making him a major figure in the history of secession and the Civil War.
After the Confederacy's collapse, he was captured, imprisoned for about two years, and never tried on the treason charge brought against him. He spent much of his later life writing and defending the Confederate cause, and he died in 1889.