William Segar Archer (March 5, 1789March 28, 1855) was a slave owner, politician, planter and lawyer from Amelia County, Virginia who served several times in the Virginia House of Delegates, as well as in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate (1841 to 1847). Early and family life Born at "The Lodge" (a/k/a "Red Lodge") in Amelia County, Virginia to the former Elizabeth Eggleston (d. 1826) and her husband John Archer (1746-1812), William Segar Archer received a private education appropriate to his class and graduated from The College of William & Mary in 1806. His father (as well as his younger brother) died in 1812. Meanwhile, Archer read law, possibly with his uncle Joseph Eggleston (1754-1811), a former Revolutionary War soldier from Middlesex County, who then moved to Amelia County, where he became a planter and politician, and the local justice of the peace. Another Revolutionary War soldier uncle who moved to Amelia County was Lt. Richard Tanner Archer. William Segar Archer married and had a daughter, who did not survive him. At his death, he was survived by several sisters, and an illegitimate son. Career Admitted to the bar in 1810, Archer began a private legal practice in Amelia and neighboring Powhatan Counties. He also operated a plantation in Amelia County using enslaved labor. In the 1820 federal census, John R. Archer (possibly his father, although he had died in 1812) owned 51 enslaved people, and William S. Archer owned 32 slaves. In the 1830 federal census, William S. Archer owned 25 enslaved people, which number grew to 50 enslaved people by the 1840 federal census, and 68 enslaved people in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census. By his death, Archer owned 88 enslaved individuals, and land both in Amelia County and in Mississippi. Four times Archer won election to represent Amelia County (part time) as one of its two delegates in the Virginia House of Delegates between 1812 and 1819, although he also once failed to win re-election during that period. One historian reading his speeches considered his political stance undemocratic and noted that, despite his campaigns, Amelia County voters refused to elect him as one of their representatives to the Virginia constitutional conventions in 1829, nor in 1850. Archer won election to the United States House of Representatives to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Pleasants (whom the Virginia General Assembly