Alexander K. Farrar Explained

Alexander King Farrar (c. 1814–1878) was a state senator, lawyer, plantation owner, and secession convention delegate in Mississippi.^[1]

Farrar was a prominent slave owner^[2] with a large plantation near Kingston, Mississippi. He owned about 250 slaves.^[3] He represented Adams County, Mississippi in the Mississippi Senate from 1852 to 1858. He married Ann Mary Dougharty and, after her death in the 1860s, Lue Philps Lesley.^[4] He was involved in investigating the murder of a plantation manager.^{[2] [5]}

Farrar was involved in the hanging of dozens of enslaved people during the American Civil War. After the war he was involved in a plan to sell part of his plantation to freedmen.^[6]

Louisiana State University has a collection of his papers.^[7]

Notes and References

1. Book: Smith, Timothy B.. The Mississippi Secession Convention: Delegates and Deliberations in Politics and War, 1861-1865. September 25, 2014. Univ. Press of Mississippi. 9781626743663. Google Books.
2. An Old South Morality Play: Reconsidering the Social Underpinnings of the Proslavery Ideology. Wayne, Michael. 1990. The Journal of American History. 77. 3. 838–863. JSTOR. 10.2307/2078988. 2078988.
3. Rebellious Talk and Conspiratorial Plots: The Making of a Slave Insurrection in Civil War Natchez. Behrend, Justin. 2011. The Journal of Southern History. 77. 1. 17–52. 27919386. JSTOR.
4. Web site: Farrar, Alexander K. (Alexander King), 1814-1878. - Social Networks and Archival Context. snaccooperative.org.
5. Book: Scarborough, William Kauffman. Masters of the Big House: Elite Slaveholders of the Mid-Nineteenth-Century South. April 1, 2006. LSU Press. 9780807131558. Google Books.
6. Book: Behrend, Justin. Reconstructing Democracy: Grassroots Black Politics in the Deep South After the Civil War. April 18, 2015. University of Georgia Press. 9780820340333. Google Books.
7. Web site: Alexander K. Farrar papers, 1804-1931 (bulk 1831-1870). researchworks.oclc.org.