Representative Ethelbert Barksdale

Ethelbert Barksdale (January 4, 1824 – February 17, 1893) was a slave owner, a U.S. Representative from Mississippi, and a member of the Confederate States Congress during the American Civil War. He was born in Smyrna, Rutherford County, Tennessee, to William Barksdale and Nancy Hervey Lester. He was the younger brother of William Barksdale, who later became a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army and was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. In 1843, Ethelbert Barksdale married Alice-Jane Harris (1826–1906), and the couple had three children.

As a young man, Barksdale moved from Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi, where he established himself in journalism and public affairs. He adopted journalism as his profession and became a prominent figure in the Mississippi press. Barksdale edited the official journal of the State of Mississippi from 1854 to 1861, using that position to influence public opinion and Democratic Party politics in the years leading up to the Civil War. He later resumed this role from 1876 to 1883. He also served as editor of the Jackson Clarion, one of the leading Democratic newspapers in the state. His skill in party organization and political strategy earned him the moniker “the Sir Robert Peel of Mississippi,” reflecting his reputation as a shaper of party policy and a key figure in state politics.

Barksdale was an active member of the Democratic Party and became a forceful advocate for Mississippi’s secession from the Union as sectional tensions intensified in the late 1850s and early 1860s. He strongly supported the state’s withdrawal from the United States at the outset of the Civil War, aligning himself with the pro-secession leadership that brought Mississippi into the Confederacy. His prominence in journalism and party politics made him a natural choice for higher political responsibilities within the Confederate government.

During the American Civil War, Barksdale served as a member of the First and then the Second Confederate Congress, representing Mississippi in the Confederate House of Representatives from 1861 to 1865. In that capacity he participated in the legislative process of the Confederate States during the entirety of the conflict. Near the end of the war, as Confederate manpower dwindled, he introduced controversial legislation to permit African Americans—referred to in the language of the time as “Negroes”—to fight for the Confederacy against the Union. This proposal, which had the support of General Robert E. Lee, initially passed the Confederate House but was narrowly defeated in the Confederate Senate. A modified version of this “last resort” measure was eventually approved only weeks before the collapse of the Confederacy, but it was never meaningfully implemented.

Following the war, Barksdale returned to Mississippi and resumed his involvement in Democratic Party politics during Reconstruction and the post-Reconstruction era. He served as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1860, 1868, 1872, and 1880, reflecting his long-standing role in national as well as state party affairs. Within Mississippi, he served as chairman of the Democratic State executive committee from 1877 to 1879, a period during which Democrats consolidated control over state government and dismantled many of the political gains made by African Americans during Reconstruction. At the same time, he continued his editorial work, again editing the official state journal from 1876 to 1883 and helping to articulate and defend Democratic policies in the state.

Barksdale’s prominence in Mississippi politics led to his election to the United States Congress after the end of Reconstruction. As a member of the Democratic Party representing Mississippi, he was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1883, to March 3, 1887. His two terms in office occurred during a significant period in American history, as the nation grappled with the legacies of the Civil War, the end of Reconstruction, and the rapid economic and social changes of the Gilded Age. In Congress, Barksdale participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Mississippi constituents as part of the Democratic delegation from the South. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1886, which ended his federal legislative career after two consecutive terms.

After leaving Congress, Barksdale withdrew from national politics and engaged in agricultural pursuits in Yazoo County, Mississippi. He continued to be identified with the Democratic Party and with the conservative political order that had taken shape in the post-Reconstruction South, but his remaining years were spent largely in private life rather than in public office. He lived in Yazoo City, Mississippi, where he managed his agricultural interests and remained a respected, if controversial, figure due to his long record in journalism, Confederate service, and Democratic politics.

Ethelbert Barksdale died in Yazoo City, Yazoo County, Mississippi, on February 17, 1893. He was interred in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi, a burial place for many of the state’s political and military leaders. His life spanned the antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction, and post-Reconstruction eras, and his career reflected the political and social transformations of Mississippi and the broader South during the nineteenth century.