John Ker (1789–1850) was an American surgeon, planter, and politician in Louisiana. Together with several major Mississippi planters, in the 1830s Ker co-founded the Mississippi Colonization Society (MCS), promoting the removal of free people of color to a colony in West Africa (which later became part of

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

). The MCS modeled itself after the

American Colonization Society The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the repatriation of freeborn peop ...

, the national organization for which Ker later served as a vice president. Born in North Carolina, where his father was the first president of the new state university, Ker moved with his family as a youth to Mississippi after 1817, when his father was appointed to the state supreme court. He went to medical school in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and returned to the South. A surgeon in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

and

Creek War The Creek War (also the Red Stick War or the Creek Civil War) was a regional conflict between opposing Native American factions, European powers, and the United States during the early 19th century. The Creek War began as a conflict within th ...

, Ker was also a slaveowner and owned a cotton plantation in Louisiana. As a planter, he likewise served in the Louisiana state house.

Early life

John Ker was born on June 27, 1789Smithsonian Institution
/ref>
/ref> in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. His father, David Ker (1758–1805), born in

Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Down Cathedral, Its cathedral is sai ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

and of

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

ancestry, immigrated with his wife Mary to the United States in the 1780s. He served as the first President 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 ...

, which was chartered in 1789 and opened for students in 1795.''Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi'', Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1999, Part 1, p. 52

/ref>Taylor, Michael
CIVIL WAR TREASURES: “What a Price to Pay, for What?”: Four Civil War Letters of Sarah Ker Butler
''Civil War Book Review,'' Issue: Fall 2011 The family moved to Mississippi about 1817, the year it became a state. President

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

(1743–1826) appointed Ker's father to the

Supreme Court of Mississippi The Supreme Court of Mississippi is the Supreme court, highest court in the state of Mississippi. It was established in 1818 per the terms of the first constitution of the state and was known as the High Court of Errors and Appeals from 1832 to 1 ...

. John Ker had been educated privately, as was common among the southern upper class. He went North to medical school, earning a

Doctor of Medicine A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin language, Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of ph ...

degree from the

Medical School A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1822.

Career

Ker worked as a medical doctor.Louisiana State University Libraries: John Ker Papers
/ref>Mosette Broderick, ''Triumvirate: McKim, Mead & White: Art, Architecture, Scandal, and Class in America's Gilded Age'', New York, New York: Random House, 2010, p. 5

/ref> He served as a surgeon for the US Army in the

and the

of 1813–1814. Ker also became a planter, owning the Good Hope Plantation in

Concordia Parish, Louisiana Concordia Parish (; ) is a parish that borders the Mississippi River in eastern central Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,687. The parish seat is Vidalia. The parish was formed in 1807. Concordia Parish is part of the ...

, which produced cotton as a commodity crop, based on slave labor. He was a patron of Oakland College, near

Rodney, Mississippi Rodney is a ghost town in Jefferson County, Mississippi, United States. Most of the buildings are gone and the remaining structures are in various states of disrepair. The town regularly floods and buildings have extensive flood damage. The Rod ...

, a college founded by Rev.

Jeremiah Chamberlain Jeremiah Chamberlain (January 5, 1794 – September 5, 1851) was an American Presbyterianism, Presbyterian minister, educator and college administrator. He was president of three institutions of higher education between 1823 and 1851, specifica ...

(1794–1851) that closed during 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 ...

In the 1830s, Ker was elected and served in the

Louisiana State Senate The Louisiana State Senate (; ) is the upper house of Louisiana’s legislature. Senators serve four-year terms and participate in various committees. Composition The Louisiana State Senate has 39 members elected from single-member districts ...

. That same decade, together with major slave owners Isaac Ross (1760–1838), Edward McGehee (1786–1880),

Stephen Duncan Stephen Duncan (March 4, 1787 – January 29, 1867) was an American planter and banker in Mississippi. He was born and studied medicine in Pennsylvania, but moved to Natchez District, Mississippi Territory in 1808 and became the wealthiest ...

(1787–1867), and educator Chamberlain, all from Mississippi, he co-founded the Mississippi Colonization Society (MCS). Its goal was to send

free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (; ) were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not enslaved. However, the term also applied to people born free who we ...

to a colony run by the society called Mississippi-in-Africa in order to remove them from the southern slave society. Ker served as a vice-president of the society.Dale Edwyna Smith, ''The Slaves of Liberty: Freedom in Amite County, Mississippi, 1820-1868'', Routledge, 2013, pp. 15-2

/ref>Mary Carol Miller, ''Lost Mansions of Mississippi'', Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2010, Volume II, pp. 53-5

/ref> The organization was modeled after the

and focused on free people of color in Mississippi and later Louisiana, both of which had large enslaved populations but vastly different free populations of color. The Mississippi-in-Africa colony ultimately merged into the

Commonwealth of Liberia Liberia, officially the Colony of Liberia, later the Commonwealth of Liberia, was a Colony, private colony of the American Colonization Society between 1821, before becoming the self-proclaimed independent nation of the Liberia, Republic of Liberi ...

in 1841. Additionally, Ker later served as one of the vice presidents of the American Colonization Society.UNC Libraries: Collection Title: Mary Susan Ker Papers, 1785-1958
/ref>''The African Repository'', American Colonization Society, 1842, Volumes 18-19, p. 5

/ref>

Personal life

He married Mary Kenard Baker, the daughter of Joshua Baker (1799–1885), who later served as the 22nd Governor of Louisiana in 1868. They had four sons and two daughters: *David Ker (1825–1884). *Sarah Evelina Ker (1826–1868). She married Richard E. Butler. *John Ker (1826–1870). *Lewis Ker (1831–1894). *Mary Susan Ker (1838–1923). * William H. Ker (1841–1902). Ker and his family summered at Linden, a mansion on the bluffs above the river in

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia, Louisiana, Natchez was ...

. It is now listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The property was formerly owned by

Thomas Buck Reed Thomas Buck Reed (May 7, 1787November 26, 1829) was a United States senator from Mississippi. Biography Early life Thomas Buck Reed was born on May 7, 1787, near Lexington, Kentucky. He attended the public schools and the College of New Jerse ...

(1787–1829), a

United States Senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

from Mississippi and son-in-law of Isaac Ross, whom Ker knew through the Mississippi Colonization Society. Ker was a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

, the Protestant church strongly associated with Scotland and its emigrants.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ker, John 1789 births 1850 deaths American people of Anglo-Irish descent American people of Scottish descent People from Concordia Parish, Louisiana Politicians from Natchez, Mississippi Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni People of the Creek War United States Army personnel of the War of 1812 United States Army Medical Corps officers American cotton plantation owners 19th-century American planters Louisiana state senators American Presbyterians U.S. state legislators who owned slaves 19th-century American physicians People of the American colonization movement People from Chapel Hill, North Carolina Ulster Scots people 19th-century members of the Louisiana State Legislature