Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) was a United States Senator who became the President of the Confederacy in 1861. Born in Mississippi, Davis entered the United States Military Academy at West Point as a young man, and he served in the military for several years after. Upon returning to Mississippi, he ran a large cotton plantation. Davis then began a political career, securing election to the United States House of Representatives, fighting in the Mexican American War, and then serving as Senator and Secretary of War. Davis remained a committed defender of slavery and its expansion throughout this period. After secession, delegates from the Confederate States elected Davis as President. He served as President for the whole war, being captured by Federal troops in 1865, after which he was briefly imprisoned. He was released two years later and fled to Canada. He returned to the South after President Andrew Johnson pardoned former leaders of the Confederacy in 1868. Davis spent his late life attempting to defend his legacy against accusations of treachery, his writings forming the basis for much of the “Lost Cause” mythology about the antebellum South.