Francis Wilkinson Pickens [SEP] position held
Francis Wilkinson Pickens
Francis Wilkinson Pickens (1805/1807January 25, 1869) was a political Democrat and Governor of South Carolina when that state became the first to secede from the U.S.A.
A cousin of Senator John C. Calhoun, Pickens was born into the culture of the antebellum plantocracy, and became an ardent supporter of nullification (refusal to pay federal import tariffs) when he served in the South Carolina house of representatives, before being elected to Congress and then the state senate.
As state governor during the Fort Sumter crisis,
SCIway Biography of Francis Wilkinson Pickens
- NGA Biography of Francis Wilkinson Pickens