Henry A. Wise was a lawyer, a member of the United States House of Representatives (1832–1844), U.S. minister to Brazil (1844–1847), governor of Virginia (1856–1860) during John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, and a brigadier general in the Confederate army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Born in Accomack County on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, Wise rose to national prominence during the political turmoil of the late antebellum period. A fiery politician and gifted orator with a mercurial temperament, he advocated a number of progressive positions, including capital improvements in western Virginia, broadening Virginia’s electoral base through constitutional reform, and public funding for universal elementary education. Wise also was a stout defender of slavery and eventually became an ardent secessionist. Perhaps best known for being governor when Brown attempted to spark a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry, Wise had the authority to commute Brown’s death sentence. Instead, he allowed the execution to take place, making possible the radical abolitionist’s ascension to martyrdom. After Virginia’s secession in 1861, Wise served in the Confederate army. In 1872, he supported U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant, the former Union general-in-chief, in his campaign for reelection. Wise died in Richmond, Virginia in 1876.
For Further Reading:
- Simpson, Craig M. A Good Southerner: The Life of Henry A. Wise of Virginia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
- Eaton, Clement. The Freedom of Thought Struggle in the Old South. Revised and enlarged edition. New York: Harper and Row, 1964.
- Eaton, Clement. The Mind of the Old South. Revised edition. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1967.
- Lankford, Nelson. Cry Havoc! The Crooked Road to Civil War, 1861. New York: Viking, 2007.
This Vignette Provided By
This Vignette is drawn from an Encyclopedia Virginia entry contributed by John M. McClure, a graduate student in the History Department at the College of William and Mary.
