Brooke Bassett

2/3/19

Bicentennial Project Part 2

Though it may be assumed that all Southerners during the Civil War were Confederates who

supported secession, many were outspoken Republicans who supported the Union. Among these

Unionists was a man named Lewis Eliphalet Parsons, a predominant political figure in Alabama.

Parsons began his political involvement as a Whig and later as a member of the Know-Nothings in

the years prior to the Civil War. From 1859-1861, he served in the Alabama House of

Representatives as a representative of Talladega County1.

Though only a moderate Unionists, he did express strong feelings against many popular

Southern practices and movements, among which were slavery and secession. Many Southerners

considered secession as a necessary action to protect the rights of the Southern states, including

slavery. Yet he did not own any slaves despite being considerably wealthy with roughly $78,000 in

his possession. Even as support for secession continued to grow in the South as the war grew

closer, Parsons still attempted to prevent the secession of Alabama from the Union through debates.

One secessionists named William Lowndes Yancey, considered the leader of the Confederate cause

in Alabama, even declared Parsons as an excellent speaker for the Unionist cause against secession.

Parsons continued to advocate for peace with the Union through the war as he stayed in Alabama

while other Unionists fled the state2.

Soon after the war’s end in 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed him as the

provisional governor of Alabama, largely because he was considered respectable and well-suited

1
Sarah Wiggins, “Lewis Eliphalet Parsons (1865),” Encyclopedia of Alabama, 11 May 2007,
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1169.
2 Sarah Wiggins, “Lewis Eliphalet Parsons (1865),” Encyclopedia of Alabama, 11 May 2007,

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1169.
for the job by many Unionists in the state3. Parsons attempted to revise the state constitution

because he strongly believed that “former slaves were now free and must be governed as free

men”4. He later took part in the repeal of the ordinance of secession as well as the abolition of

slavery in Alabama’s constitutional convention held in September of 18655. Yet long after the war’s

end, he remained loyal to the Republican party and continued his political involvement. Lewis

Parsons helped serve as one of the many Unionist figures in the South during the Civil War who

helped shape the complexity of sectional feelings by promoting Unionist ideas and left a lasting

impact that carried out past the war’s end.

3
“Alabama Governors: Lewis Eliphalet Parsons,” Alabama Department of Archives and History, 7 February
2014, http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/g_parson.html.
4 Sarah Wiggins, “Lewis Eliphalet Parsons (1865),” Encyclopedia of Alabama, 11 May 2007,

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1169.
5 Sarah Wiggins, “Lewis Eliphalet Parsons (1865),” Encyclopedia of Alabama, 11 May 2007,

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1169.
Lewis Eliphalet Parsons

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1169
 Bibliography

Sarah Wiggins. “Lewis Eliphalet Parsons (1865).” Encyclopedia of Alabama. 11 May 2007.

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1169.

“Alabama Governors: Lewis Eliphalet Parsons.” Alabama Department of Archives and History. 7 February

2014. http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/g_parson.html.