William Drayton
- For other men with the same name, see: William Drayton (disambiguation).
William Drayton (December 30, 1776 – May 24, 1846) was an American politician, banker, and author from Charleston, South Carolina. He was the son of Federal Judge William Drayton, Sr. of South Carolina.
He represented South Carolina's first district in the U.S. Congress from 1825 to 1833. He was a unionist during the nullification controversy and in 1833 moved to Philadelphia, where he published a pro-slavery tract and served as president of the Bank of the United States. He was the father of Percival Drayton and Thomas Fenwick Drayton, who fought on opposite sides during the American Civil War. His first cousin was William Henry Drayton.
He bought Drayton Island, a plantation, in Florida.[1] Author Edgar Allan Poe dedicated his collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840) to him.[2] Drayton authored The South Vindicated from the Treason and Fanaticism of the Abolitionists in 1836.
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Drayton Island". University of Florida. http://www.unf.edu/floridahistoryonline//Plantations/plantations/Drayton_Island.htm. Retrieved 2007-02-13.
- ^ Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. p. 129. ISBN 0801857309
[edit] External links
- biographic sketch at U.S. Congress website
- William Drayton at Find a Grave
- The Drayton Family Papers, including correspondence from 1783–1896, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
  |
This article about a South Carolina politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
