Representative Bolling Hall

Bolling Hall (December 25, 1767 – February 25, 1836) was a United States Representative from Georgia and an early settler and planter in both Georgia and Alabama. He was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, where he spent his youth in the closing years of the colonial period. As a teenager he came of age during the American Revolution and, at the age of sixteen, entered service in the Revolutionary War, an experience that linked him personally to the founding generation and later informed the respect he enjoyed as a veteran in the communities where he settled.

After the conclusion of the war, Hall joined the movement of settlers into the interior of the southern states. In 1792, at the age of twenty-five, he moved to Hancock County, Georgia, where new lands were being opened for settlement following the expansion of the state’s frontier. In Hancock County he established himself as a planter and local leader. His standing in the community led to his holding several local offices, through which he gained experience in public affairs and became identified with the emerging Jeffersonian Republican movement in Georgia.

Hall’s local prominence led to his election to the Georgia House of Representatives, where he served two separate periods in the state legislature, from 1800 to 1802 and again from 1804 to 1806. During these years he participated in the political life of a rapidly growing state, as Georgia dealt with issues of land distribution, frontier security, and the development of its agricultural economy. His legislative service helped to solidify his reputation as a reliable Republican and advocate for his constituents in the interior counties.

Building on his state-level experience, Hall was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives. He represented Georgia in the 12th, 13th, and 14th Congresses, serving from March 4, 1811, until March 3, 1817. His tenure in Congress coincided with the War of 1812 and the immediate postwar period, when questions of national defense, trade, and expansion were central to federal policy. As a southern Republican, he served during the presidencies of James Madison and James Monroe and took part in the legislative work of a Congress that oversaw the nation’s second conflict with Great Britain and the early stages of its westward growth. At the conclusion of his third term, he retired from Congress and returned to private life.

In 1818, Hall joined the wave of migration into what was then the Alabama Territory, moving westward from Georgia and settling near the site of present-day Montgomery. There he developed a substantial cotton plantation, known as Ellerslie, in Autauga County, in a region that would later become part of Elmore County, Alabama. As a prominent planter and former member of Congress, he became one of the leading figures in the area’s social and economic life, contributing to the establishment of plantation agriculture along the Alabama River.

Hall’s status as a Revolutionary War veteran and former congressman brought him continued public responsibilities even after his formal retirement from elective office. When General the Marquis de Lafayette made his celebrated tour of the United States in 1824–1825, Hall served as chairman of the reception committee in his area, overseeing local arrangements to honor the French hero of American independence. This role reflected both his own Revolutionary service and the esteem in which he was held by his fellow citizens in Alabama.

Bolling Hall spent the remainder of his life at Ellerslie, managing his plantation and remaining a respected elder in the community. He died there on February 25, 1836, on his plantation in Autauga (now Elmore) County, Alabama. He was buried on the Ellerslie estate, closing a life that spanned from the Revolutionary era through the early decades of the United States’ expansion into the Deep South.