Скачать или смотреть History Is Lunch: Ben Wynne, "The Man Who Punched Jefferson Davis"

On February 6, 2019, Ben Wynne presented "The Man Who Punched Jefferson Davis: The Political Life of Henry S. Foote, Southern Unionist" as part of the History Is Lunch series.

A Virginian who moved to Mississippi during the 1830s, Henry Stuart Foote made a name as a gifted but volatile lawyer and political personality. In 1847 Foote was elected to represent Mississippi in the U.S. Senate. “He became one of the South’s most outspoken Unionists, infuriating many of his southern colleagues by promoting cooperation with the North,” said Wynne. “He left the senate in 1851 to run for governor of Mississippi on a pro-Union platform and narrowly defeated Jefferson Davis, his worst political enemy.”

After a turbulent term as governor, Foote moved to California and missed being elected U.S. senator by one vote. Returning later to the South, he established himself in Nashville and was elected to the Confederate Congress, where he was a constant thorn in Davis’ side. In 1865, as the Confederacy was crumbling, Foote tried to broker an unauthorized peace settlement with the Lincoln government. Given the choice by authorities to return to the Confederacy or leave the country, Foote escaped abroad.

After the war’s end he returned to the United States and remained active, writing his own history of the conflict as well as a memoir with the title Casket of Reminiscences. “Few politicians in the nineteenth century had a career with more dramatic twists and turns than Foote,” said Wynne. “He fought at least five duels and had physical altercations with half a dozen fellow politicians—he punched Jefferson Davis and pulled a gun on a colleague on the floor of the U.S. Senate.”

Ben Wynne earned an undergraduate degree at Millsaps College, a master’s degree in history at Mississippi College, and a doctorate in history from the University of Mississippi. He is professor of history at the University of North Georgia. Wynne’s other books include In Tune: Charley Patton, Jimmie Rodgers and the Roots of American Music (LSU Press 2014), Mississippi’s Civil War: A Narrative History (Mercer Press 2006), and A Hard Trip: A History of the 15th Mississippi Infantry, CSA (Mercer Press 2003).

History Is Lunch is a weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History that explores different aspects of the state's past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building in Jackson. MDAH livestreams videos of the program at noon on Wednesdays on their Facebook page,   / mdahofficial  .