Albert Taylor Bledsoe (November 9, 1809 – December 8, 1877) was an American Episcopal priest, attorney, professor of mathematics, and officer in the Confederate army and was best known as a staunch defender of slavery and, after the South lost the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, an architect of the

Lost Cause The Lost Cause of the Confederacy, known simply as the Lost Cause, is an American pseudohistorical and historical negationist myth that argues the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not cente ...

. He was the author of ''Liberty and Slavery'' (1856), "the most extensive philosophical treatment of slavery ever produced by a Southern academic", which defended slavery laws as ensuring proper societal order.

Early life and education

Bledsoe was born on November 9, 1809, in Frankfort, Kentucky, the oldest of five children of Moses Owsley Bledsoe and Sophia Childress Taylor (who was a relative of President

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military officer and politician who was the 12th president of the United States, serving from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States ...

). He was a cadet at the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

at West Point from 1825 to 1830, where he was a fellow cadet of

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States of America, president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the Unite ...

and

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...

. After serving two years in the United States Army, he studied law and theology at

Kenyon College Kenyon College ( ) is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1824 by Episcopal Bishop Philander Chase. It is the oldest private instituti ...

Gambier, Ohio Gambier ( ) is a village in Knox County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,213 at the 2020 census. Gambier is the home of Kenyon College. History Gambier was laid out in 1824. The village was named after one of Kenyon College's early ...

, and received his M.A. and LL.M. In 1836. he married Harriet Coxe of

Burlington, New Jersey Burlington is a City (New Jersey), city situated on the banks of the Delaware River in Burlington County, New Jersey, Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a suburb of Philadelphia. As of the 2020 United States census, the c ...

, and they had seven children, four of whom survived childhood. His daughter was the author Sophia Bledsoe Herrick.

College professor and mathematician

* Adjunct Professor of Mathematics and French, Kenyon College, (OH) 1833–1834. * Professor of Mathematics, Miami University (OH), 1834–1835. * Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, University of Mississippi, 1848–1854. * Professor of Mathematics, University of Virginia, 1854–1861. Bledsoe in his lectures at the University of Virginia would frequently "interlard his demonstration of some difficult problem in differential or integral calculus—for example, the lemniscata of —with some vigorous remarks in the doctrine of

States' rights In United States, American politics of the United States, political discourse, states' rights are political powers held for the state governments of the United States, state governments rather than the federal government of the United States, ...

". His book ''The Philosophy of Mathematics'' was one of the earliest American works on mathematics and includes chapters on Descartes,

Leibnitz Leibnitz (; ) is a city in the Austrian States of Austria, state of Styria and on 1 Jan. 2023 had a population of 13,014. It is located to the south of the city of Graz, between the Mur (river), Mur and Sulm (Austria), Sulm rivers. The town is ...

, and Newton. Bledsoe is perhaps best remembered for his treatise An Essay on Liberty and Slavery, which presented an extended proslavery argument. Bledsoe argued that the natural state of humans was in society, not in nature, and that humans in society needed to have restraints on their actions. That is, he argued that liberty was greatest when humans were allowed to exercise only the amount of freedom they were naturally suited to. Some had to be restrained; others were entitled to freedom.

Clergyman

In 1835, Bledsoe became an Episcopal minister and became an assistant to Bishop Smith of Kentucky. He abandoned his clerical career in 1838 because of his opposition to infant baptism. Later in life, he was ordained a Methodist minister in 1871, but he never took charge of a church.
/ref> He was a strenuous advocate of the doctrine of free will and his views are set forth in his book ''Examination of Edwards on the Will'' (1845).

Lawyer

In 1838, Bledsoe moved to Springfield, Illinois, where he was a law partner of Edward D. Baker, and where he practiced law in the same courts as

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

and

Stephen Douglas Stephen Arnold Douglas ( né Douglass; April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. As a U.S. senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party to run for president in the 1860 ...

. He practiced before the United States Supreme Court in Washington DC from 1840 to 1848.

Confederate official

In 1861, Bledsoe received a commission as a colonel in the Confederate army, and later became Acting Assistant Secretary of War. In 1863 he was sent to London for the purpose of researching various historical problems relating to the north–south conflict, as well as guiding British public opinion in favor of the Confederate cause.

Southern apologist

In 1868 he moved back to the United States and published the ''Southern Review''.Mott, Frank L. (1938). "The Southern Review." In: ''A History of American Magazines, 1865–1885.'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p. 382. He was the "epitome of an unreconstructed Southerner" and published articles defending

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

and

secession Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

Death

Bledsoe died on December 8, 1877, in Alexandria, Virginia.

Writings

''Examination of Edwards on the Will''
(1845).
''A Theodicy, or Vindication of the Divine Glory''
(1853).
''Essay on Liberty and Slavery''
(1856).
''Is Davis a Traitor? or Was Secession a Constitutional Right previous to the War of 1861?''
(1866).
''The Philosophy of Mathematics, with Special Reference to the Elements of Geometry and the Infinitesimal Method''
(1868).

References

External links

* *
''The Southern Review,''
at

Hathi Trust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digit ...

Biography of Albert Taylor Bledsoe at Answers.com
* ttp://www.bookrags.com/biography/albert-taylor-bledsoe/ Biography of Albert Taylor Bledsoe from the Encyclopedia of World Biographybr>Biography on Albert Taylor Bledsoe from the Kentucky Historical Society

* ttp://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc02.html?term=Bledsoe,+Albert+Taylor Entry on Bledsoe, Albert Taylor at the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge {{DEFAULTSORT:Bledsoe, Albert Taylor 1809 births 1877 deaths People from Frankfort, Kentucky Kenyon College alumni Confederate States Army officers Illinois lawyers American magazine publishers (people) United States Army officers United States Military Academy alumni American proslavery activists Kenyon College faculty 19th-century American mathematicians Miami University faculty University of Mississippi faculty University of Virginia faculty 19th-century American Episcopal priests 19th-century American Methodist ministers Neo-Confederates 19th-century American lawyers