Evan Shelby Alexander (October 28, 1809) was a slave owner, lawyer, legislator from the Salisbury District of North Carolina, and

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Democratic-Republican Party The Democratic-Republican Party (also referred to by historians as the Republican Party or the Jeffersonian Republican Party), was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s. It championed li ...

Congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

from

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

between 1806 and 1809.

Life story

Born in

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Mecklenburg County () is a County (United States), county located in the southwestern region of the U.S. state of North Carolina, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 1,115,482, making it th ...

to his father, a Revolutionary War officer and slave owner around 1767, Alexander attended the common schools and then

Princeton College Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

, graduating in 1787, and was a member of the Whig society (later the Whig-Clio), and delivered a commencement address in Greek. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, practicing in

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

. Alexander was elected to the

North Carolina House of Commons The North Carolina House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. The House is a 120-member body led by a Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, Speaker of the House, who holds powers si ...

from the

Salisbury District Salisbury was a Districts of England, local government district in Wiltshire, England from 1974 to 2009. Its main urban area was the city of Salisbury. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 and the Englis ...

, serving from 1796 to 1803, and was a trustee of the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

from 1799 to 1809. Following the resignation of Rep. Nathaniel Alexander, his cousin, Evan Shelby Alexander was chosen in a special election to fill the vacancy; he was elected to a term in regular Congressional elections in 1806, serving in the 9th and

10th Tenth may refer to: Numbers * 10th, the ordinal form of the number ten * One tenth, , or 0.1, a fraction, one part of a unit divided equally into ten parts. ** the SI prefix deci- ** tithe, a one-tenth part of something * 1/10 of any unit of me ...

Congresses and serving from February 24, 1806 to March 3, 1809. He died shortly after leaving Congress, on October 28, 1809.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Evan Shelby 1760s births 1809 deaths North Carolina lawyers Members of the North Carolina House of Representatives Princeton University alumni People from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill people 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives