Albert Gallatin Brown (May 31, 1813June 12, 1880) was Governor of Mississippi from 1844 to 1848 and a Democratic United States Senator from Mississippi from 1854 to 1861, when he withdrew during secession. Early life He was born to Joseph and Elizabeth (Rice) Brown, a poor farming family, in the Chester District of South Carolina, at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in 1813. In 1823, when he was only 10 years old his family moved to the new state of Mississippi. The Brown family settled Copiah County, south of the state capital, Jackson. Raising cotton in the new frontier state proved to be lucrative for the Brown family. In 1824, just one year after settling in Mississippi, Joseph Brown was elected Justice of the Peace in Copiah County. By 1825, two years after arriving in Mississippi, he was the third-largest taxpayer in the county, owning 18 slaves. By 1832, he was farming a plantation of 1,600 acres and owned 23 slaves. In 1829, Albert Brown entered Mississippi College, but he soon transferred to Jefferson College, which he attended for about six months. Political career During his lifetime, Brown was one of the most popular and the most influential men in Mississippi. He is considered to be the father of the public school system and of the University of Mississippi. His rhetorical attacks on illiteracy are considered to have made a substantial contribution to the cause of education in Mississippi. He was also a Fire-Eater and a strong advocate for the expansion of slavery. In 1858, he said: "I want a foothold in Central America... because I want to plant slavery there.... I want Cuba,... Tamaulipas, Potosi, and one or two other Mexican States; and I want them all for the same reason - for the planting or spreading of slavery." Indeed, he went on to say, "I would spread the blessings of slavery, like the religion of our Divine Master, to the uttermost ends of the earth." To those who agreed with such views, "Albert Gallatin Brown possessed magical powers. With many learnt spells, handsome countenance surrounded by a luxuriant, flowing beard and dark-curly hair, in every sense he looked distinguished. Courageous, he was void of vanity; animated, he was persuasive; his spirit, crackerish to the extreme." In his speech, Reuben Davis, who knew him well, states in his book Reminiscences on Mississippi and Mississippians that Brown "was the