Representative Roland Jones

Roland Jones (November 18, 1813 – February 5, 1869) was an American lawyer, jurist, and Democratic politician who represented Louisiana in the United States House of Representatives from 1853 to 1855. He was born in Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina, where he attended local private schools. Little is recorded about his family background, but his early education in Salisbury prepared him for a career that combined teaching, law, journalism, and public office.

As a young man, Jones moved within North Carolina in pursuit of work and opportunity. From 1830 to 1835 he taught school in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, gaining experience as an educator while still in his early twenties. Seeking professional advancement, he turned to the study of law and enrolled at Cambridge Law School, from which he graduated in 1838. That same year he was admitted to the bar and chose to begin his legal career in Brandon, Rankin County, Mississippi, reflecting the broader pattern of migration from the older Atlantic states into the developing regions of the South.

In Brandon, Jones quickly established himself in both the legal and public spheres. He commenced the practice of law in 1838 and simultaneously entered the world of journalism as editor of the Brandon Republican, a local newspaper, serving in that role from 1838 to 1840. His work as editor placed him at the center of community affairs and political discourse in Mississippi at a time of intense sectional and partisan debate. In 1840 he left Mississippi and moved to Shreveport, in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, where he resumed the practice of law and began to build the connections that would lead to his later political and judicial career.

Jones’s public service in Louisiana began in the state legislature. He was elected a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and served from 1844 to 1848, participating in the governance of a rapidly growing state in the lower Mississippi Valley. After his legislative service, he continued his legal work and was chosen as a district judge of Caddo Parish, holding that judicial office in 1851 and 1852. His tenure on the bench in this period enhanced his standing as a legal authority in northwestern Louisiana and provided him with a platform for higher office.

In 1852, Jones was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress, representing Louisiana in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1853, to March 3, 1855. Serving in Washington during the administration of President Franklin Pierce, he took his seat at a time when national politics were dominated by sectional tensions and debates over slavery and territorial expansion. Although specific details of his committee assignments and legislative initiatives are not extensively documented, his alignment with the Democratic Party placed him within the dominant pro–states’ rights and pro-slavery political current of Louisiana in the 1850s. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1854 and thus served a single term before returning to private life.

After leaving Congress, Jones resumed the practice of law in Shreveport, continuing his involvement in local legal affairs. His judicial career was renewed when he was again elected district judge in 1860. He served on the bench throughout the Civil War and into the early Reconstruction era, remaining in office until 1868. During these years he presided over a district court in a region deeply affected by the conflict and its aftermath, overseeing civil and criminal matters in a period marked by social upheaval, economic dislocation, and the transition from slavery to freedom.

Roland Jones died in Shreveport, Louisiana, on February 5, 1869. He was interred in Oakland Cemetery in Shreveport. His career, spanning education, journalism, law, state legislation, and national office, reflected the trajectory of a Southern Democratic politician and jurist in the antebellum, Civil War, and early Reconstruction eras, rooted in the legal and political life of Louisiana and the broader American South.