biography
| name: |
Benjamin, Judah (Philip)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1811–84)
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| biography:
| Lawyer and Confederate cabinet member, born in Christiansted, St Croix, US Virgin Is. The son of European Jews, he was brought to South Carolina as a child. After attending Yale (1825–7), he settled in New Orleans and became a widely respected lawyer, serving Louisiana in the US Senate (Whig, 1853–9, Democrat, 1859–61). Favouring secession, he served the Confederacy as attorney general (1861) and then as secretary of war (1861–2). He was blamed for the Confederate army's lack of equipment, but Jefferson Davis promoted him to secretary of state (1862–5). He favoured using slaves as soldiers. With the collapse of the Confederacy he fled to the West Indies and then to England (1866), where he made a brilliant new career as a British barrister, especially in appeal cases. He wrote the Treatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Property (1868), which at once became the standard in the field. |
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