"A" is for Adams, James Hopkins (1812-1861)

"A" is for Adams, James Hopkins (1812-1861). Governor. A native of lower Richland District, Adams was a Yale graduate and cotton planter. In 1834, he was elected to represent Richland District in the South Carolina House of Representatives. He served three terms in the House and two terms in the South Carolina Senate. In 1854, the General Assembly elected him governor. Seeking a cause to unify southerners and accelerate the division of North and South, he addressed the General Assembly in 1856 and called for the reopening of the international slave trade. His message asserted that if the slave trade were wrong then so was the institution of slavery. In 1860 Richland District selected James Hopkins Adams as a delegate to the Secession Convention, where he advocated South Carolina’s immediate secession from the Union.