Background
PETTUS, John Jones was born on October 9, 1813 in Wilson County, Tennessee, United States, United States. Son of John and Alice Taylor (Winston) Pettus.
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John Jones PETTUS
Edit ProfileEducation
Public school.
Career
He was a brother of General Edmund Pettus. After attending schools in Limestone County, Alabama, and studying law in Sumter County, Alabama, he moved to Kemper County, Mississippi, in the 1840s where he became a planter and an active secessionist. Pettus was a Democrat and a Presbyterian and was married.
He served in the lower house of the Mississippi legislature from 1846 to 1848 and in the upper house from 1848 to 1858. In January 1854, he was acting governor of the state, and the same year he served as president of the state Senate. From 1859 to 1863, he was governor of Mississippi.
A slow, unimaginative person, Pettus was not a successful governor, but he defended the state against union forces and kept Vicksburg from falling for a year. During his term, the markets were closed by the blockade and the military enrollment was exhausted. Pettus wanted the legislature to restrict the shipment of cotton north, and he encouraged the agricultural production of provisions and grain.
He issued cotton and Treasury notes and favored conscription. Pettus was unwilling to run for a second term as governor, and in 1864, he became a colonel in the state militia and served for the remainder of the war. After the war, he moved to Arkansas, where he lived a life of seclusion.
Religion
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Politics
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
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Born
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Died
January 25, 1867 (aged 53) -
Nationality
United States