Background
JOHNSON, George W. was born on May 27, 1811 in Georgetown, Kentucky, United States, United States. Son of William Johnson.
JOHNSON, George W. was born on May 27, 1811 in Georgetown, Kentucky, United States, United States. Son of William Johnson.
Private school, law school.
His grandfather, Colonel Robert Johnson, had been a hero of the Revolutionary War. After studying law at Transylvania University in Kentucky during the early 1830s and practicing law in Georgetown in the 1840s, Johnson turned to farming in Kentucky, where he had extensive cotton holdings. Johnson also owned a cotton plantation in Arkansas, but he resided mainly in Kentucky in the last years of the antebellum period.
He married Ann Eliza Viley on August 20,1833. They had seven children. From 1838 to 1840, he represented Scott County in the Kentucky legislature.
Johnson, a Democrat, joined John C. Breckinridge in pushing for the secession of Kentucky. He convinced President Davis to support the collection of war taxes in Kentucky in order to show that state’s support for the South. He also enlisted as a private in the 1st Kentucky Regiment and accompanied Albert Sidney Johnston in military councils.
At Shiloh, where he was an aide to Breckinridge, he was mortally wounded.
"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.
Spouse Ann Eliza Viley.