Background
MCRAE, Colin John was born on October 22, 1812 in Sneedsboro, North Carolina, United States, United States. Son of John and Elizabeth Mary McRae.
Agent Businessman Diplomat planter
MCRAE, Colin John was born on October 22, 1812 in Sneedsboro, North Carolina, United States, United States. Son of John and Elizabeth Mary McRae.
Private school.
His family moved to Mississippi five years later. The young McRae was tutored privately and attended Frederick's School and Catholic College in Biloxi, Mississippi. His schooling ended when his father died in 1835.
In 1838, he was a member of the Mississippi legislature. He was a Democrat and a Presbyterian and never married. McRae moved to Mobile, Alabama, in 1840, where he speculated in land and operated a cotton commission house.
During the 1850s, he and his brother John were promoters and stockholders of the Mobile and Ohio and the Mobile and New Orleans Railroads. In 1857, they were engaged in buying and selling land and slaves, and in 1859, they speculated in mineral lands in central Alabama. An extreme secessionist, McRae was elected to represent Mobile County in the provisional Confederate Congress, where he served on the Finance and Engrossment Committees.
He was also a major financial agent of the Confederate government. In the fall of 1862, he traveled throughout the South, buying cotton for the Confederacy, and shipping it to England through the blockade. In January 1863, he helped to negotiate and manage the Erlanger loan, for which he was the European agent.
He was the chief Confederate financial agent in Europe. In addition, he returned home for a time in late 1863 and established an important arsenal and ordnance plant at Selma, Alabama. He also became an agent of the Confederate Ordnance Bureau.
In 1863, he participated in the attempt to recruit Polish citizens to fight for the Confederacy. After the war, he tried to prevent the holders of the Erlanger bonds from suing to recover their losses. He returned to Mississippi and again engaged in business pursuits.
He helped to pay for the Jefferson Davis trial defense. In the fall of 1867, he was went to South America to establish a colony of American exiles. He bought a plantation and store at Puerto Cortes, where he dealt in cattle, mahogany, and mercantile goods.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
He served as a member of the Provisional Christian Science Congress from Alabama, 1861 to 1862.