The 16 Slave Owners Who Served in Congress in the 20th Century

John Henry Hoffecker was born near Smyrna, Delaware, in 1827. Educated as an engineer and originally a member of the Whig Party, he switched to the Republican Party in 1856. In 1898, Hoffecker was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving only one year before his death from a stroke in 1900.

Donelson Caffery served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War in the 13th Louisiana Infantry Regiment. After the war, he owned a sugar plantation and worked as a lawyer. He served in the Louisiana State Senate before being appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1892, filling the unexpired term of Randall L. Gibson who died in office. A Democrat, he served in the Senate until 1901.

Educated at Harvard University and the University of Virginia Law School, William Elliott began his law practice in 1861 but joined the Confederate Army at the outbreak of the war. He earned the rank of lieutenant colonel. Elliott was first elected to the 50th Congress in 1887 and served until 1903.

After leaving Congress, he served as commissioner of the U.S. to mark the graves of Confederate dead in the north, a position he was appointed to by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. He served in that position until his death in 1907.

After serving as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, Charles Edward Hooker represented the state as secession commissioner. He joined the Confederate Army as a private and was later promoted to lieutenant and captain of the First Regiment of Mississippi Light Artillery. Still, after the war, records suggest Hooker criticized racial discrimination.

A strong advocate for slavery during the Missouri secesson crisis, George Graham Vest sided with the Confederacy and authored the Secession Ordinance passed by the Missouri legislature in 1861. Vest reportedly originated the phrase “history is written by the victors,” which was used to justify the “Lost Cause” philosophy that championed the Confederate cause. Despite his advocacy for the South, he once defended an African-American man accused of murder and got the man acquited.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Francis Marion Cockrell joined the Missouri State Guard as a captain. He was eventually promoted to colonel of the Confederate States Army in the 2nd Missouri Regiment in 1862. Cockrell commanded a brigade during the Vicksburg Campaign.

After the war, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1875 to 1905 as a Senator from Missouri. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Cockrell to the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1905. In that job, he negotiated the boundary between Texas and the New Mexico Territory, which was slated to become a state.

A supporter of succession prior to the Civil War, William Brimage Bate owned slaves and fought for the Confederacy, rising to the rank of major general and leading a division in the Army of Tennessee. Fighting in several major battles, Bate was seriously wounded twice. He served as the 23rd governor of Tennessee and U.S. Senator from 1887 until his death in 1905.

A Civil War veteran, Rufus Ezekiel Lester served as a member of the Georgia State Senate from 1870-1879 and Savannah Mayor from 1883 to 1889. Elected to the 51st U.S. Congress in 1889 as a Democrat, he served until his death in 1906.

John Tyler Morgan owned slaves before the Civil War, and during the war, he served as general in the Confederate States Army. An ardent supporter of Jim Crow laws, states rights, and racial segregation during Reconstruction, Morgan served six terms in the U.S. Senate representing Alabama.

Edmund Winston Pettus is considered by many as racial terrorist for his exgreme pro-slavery views and actions against African Americans before and after the Civil War. Pettus served as senior officer in the Confederate States Army, commanding an infantry unit in the western theater during the Civil War.

After the war, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1897 to 1907 and was also a Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon. The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil Rights Movement in 1965, is named after him.

James Bennett McCreary left his law practice to join the 11th Kentucky Cavalry during the Civil War, fighting under Confederate General John Hunt Morgan. He was captured by Union forces at the Battle of Buffington Island in Ohio and West Virginia in 1863. In 1884, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives where he served for six terms.

During the Civil War, James Gordon was a colonel in the Confederate Army, and as a special commissioner, he organized a visit to European countries in 1864 on behalf of the South. When he returned to North Carolina in January 1865, he was captured but fled to Canada. He returned to the U.S. to successfully defend himself against charges he was part of the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Gordon was appointed to fill the vacancy left by the death of Anselm J. McLaurin and served from 1909 to 1910.

George Washington Gordon rose to the rank of general in the Confederate Army. After the Civil War, Gordon practiced law in Pulaski, Tennessee, but was also involved in the formation of the Ku Klux Klan, rising to the position of Grand Dragon for the Realm of Tennessee. His book, “Precept,” outlined the Klan’s purpose and principles. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1907 until his death in 1911.

A Confederate soldier and segregationist, Augustus Octavius Bacon was a slave owner who served as a Democratic senator from Georgeia. In the senate, he rose to the position of president pro tempore. After his death, he established a “whites only” park in Macon, Georgia, in his will. During the 1960s Civil Rights movement, the Supreme Court struck down that provision, and the land was eventually sold for private use.

William Richardson enlisted in the 50th Regiment Alabama Infantry and was wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Shiloh. After the war, Richardson studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1867. Elected to the 56th Congress to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Joseph Wheeler, he was subsequently reelected to the 57th Congress and served six consecutive terms before his death in 1914.

Rebecca Latimer Felton was the first woman to serve in the Senate. Nearly 88 years old, Felton served for only a day as a placeholder for Georgia Gov. Thomas W. Hardwick, who was running for the office. When another candidate, Walter F. George, won instead, he allowed Felton to take his seat for a single day when Congress reconvened. A suffragist and early feminist, Felton owned slaves and advocated for white supremacy and lynching.