Background
OWENS, James Bryan was born in 1816 in Barnwell District, South Carolina, United States, United States.
OWENS, James Bryan was born in 1816 in Barnwell District, South Carolina, United States, United States.
Private school, university graduate.
He graduated from Furman College, Greenville, South Carolina, and in 1853, moved to Marion County, Florida, where he and his three brothers all owned cotton plantations. He married in the 1850s. Active in politics, Owens served in the Florida legislature before the war.
As a delegate to the Charleston Democratic convention in 1860, he favored John C. Breckinridge and tried to prevent a rift in the party before the war. He represented Marion County at the Florida secession convention, where he voted for secession. Elected to the provisional Confederate Congress, he was on the committee to draft a permanent Confederate Constitution, and he opposed the Davis administration.
When his term in Congress ended, he took no part in the war, and he returned to his plantation in Marion County. Owens was also an itinerant Baptist minister during the war years. In 1867, he attempted to work with resettling and helping Negroes under Reconstruction.
He entered the orange-growing business.
"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.