Representative Stephen Alfestus Corker

Stephen Alfestus Corker (May 7, 1830 – October 18, 1879) was an American lawyer, plantation owner, slaveholder, and Civil War veteran on the Confederate side who served briefly as a U.S. Representative from Georgia in early 1871. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Georgia during a pivotal phase of Reconstruction, contributing to the legislative process during his single term in office and participating in the democratic process on behalf of his constituents.

Corker was born on May 7, 1830, in Burke County, Georgia, into the slaveholding plantation society that dominated the antebellum South. Raised in an agricultural environment, he became closely associated with plantation life and the economic and social structures that supported it. As a young man he pursued legal studies, preparing for a professional career in law while remaining rooted in the agrarian world of rural Georgia.

After completing his legal training, Corker was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in Georgia. Alongside his legal work, he owned and operated a plantation, relying on enslaved labor prior to the Civil War. His dual role as lawyer and planter placed him among the local elite of his region and provided a platform for later political involvement. By the late 1850s and early 1860s, he was firmly established as both a professional and a landowner in Burke County.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Corker joined the Confederate cause and served as a Civil War veteran on the Confederate side. His service reflected his alignment with the secessionist movement and the defense of the Southern slaveholding order. The war years disrupted the plantation economy and the legal and political structures in which he had built his career, but they also positioned him among those former Confederates who would later seek to reassert influence during Reconstruction.

Following the Confederacy’s defeat and the onset of Reconstruction, Corker resumed his legal and agricultural pursuits in Georgia while gradually entering public life. As a Democrat, he became part of the political resurgence of white Southern Democrats who opposed many of the federal Reconstruction measures and sought to restore local control. His background as a lawyer, planter, and Confederate veteran made him a representative figure of the postwar Southern political class.

Corker’s congressional service came during this turbulent period. He was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia and served briefly in early 1871. His tenure in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, when issues of readmission of former Confederate states, civil rights for formerly enslaved people, and the balance of power between federal and state governments were fiercely contested. Although his time in office was short, he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Georgia constituents within the broader national debate over Reconstruction and the future of the South.

After leaving Congress, Corker returned to Georgia, where he continued his work as a lawyer and remained engaged in the agricultural life that had long defined his career. He lived out his later years in the post-Reconstruction South, a region undergoing profound economic, social, and political transformation as it adjusted to the end of slavery and the reconfiguration of its political order. Stephen Alfestus Corker died on October 18, 1879. His life and brief congressional service reflect the trajectory of many Southern political figures who moved from the antebellum plantation system, through Confederate military service, into the contested politics of Reconstruction-era America.