Homework Help: Social Studies: People: Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Davis was a man who really existed from 1808 to 1889. He grew up in Mississippi and had a brother named Joseph. His first wife was Sarah Knox. She died three months after their marriage, and he married his second wife, Varina Howell, ten years later. He went to school in Kentucky and at Transylvania University and entered West Point in 1824.

In the same year, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat. Later in 1847 he was elected senator for Mississippi. In 1861, he was elected president of the Confederacy for four years. He had poor health and was a poor leader. He also had trouble getting along with people, he didn't like people who disagreed with him, and he wasted time talking about unimportant things. He was on the Confederacy side fighting against the Union.

As president of the Confederate States, Davis managed to fight the Union for several years. Even though he knew that beating the Union was almost impossible and that he didn't get enough support, he still had courage to keep fighting the Union. After the war, he was put in jail for 2 years for treason. Davis was let go and retired to Beauvoir where he wrote down a book called Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government which was published in 1881.

Homework Help: Social Studies: People

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