Early Political Career

Brackets indicate dates and entries that follow logically from information in primary sources but are not explicitly stated.

1836-46

Establishes Brierfield plantation adjacent to brother Joseph's Hurricane plantation on Davis Bend, twenty miles down the Mississippi River from Vicksburg; travels; becomes involved in local and state politics (see Davis' letter to William Allen, July 24, 1840)

1843

December [19]

Meets Varina Banks Howell

1844

January

Chosen state Democratic presidential elector (see Davis' speech recommending John C. Calhoun, Jan. 8, 1844)

December 4

Casts electoral vote for James K. Polk

1845

February 26

Marries eighteen-year-old Varina Banks Howell at The Briars, the home of her parents in Natchez, Mississippi

June 28

Delivers "Eulogy on the Life and Character of Andrew Jackson" at Vicksburg

October 3

Davis' mother Jane Cook Davis dies

November 4

Elected to the House of Representatives

December 8

Takes oath to uphold the Constitution (cited by his lawyers in 1868 while trying to get treason charges dismissed); seated in the House of Representatives

December 16

Votes in favor of joint resolution providing for the annexation of Texas