# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/jefferson-davis
# Generated: 2026-08-31T22:48:14.121Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/jefferson-davis"
name: "Jefferson Davis"
slug: "jefferson-davis"
description: "He led the Confederacy through four years of war against the United States, then spent two years in federal prison on suspicion of treason. The attention never left: first as scapegoat, then Lost Cause martyr, now most often as symbol of a cause built on slavery."
tagline: "President of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865 (1808–1889)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/President-Jefferson-Davis.jpg"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Politicians"
  slug: "politicians"
profileType:
  name: "Politician"
  slug: "politician"
birthDate: "1808-06-03"
deathDate: "1889-12-06"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           67.15
  momentum:             10.55010883761428
  historical:           28.362048
  currentAttention:     30.76923076923077
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Politicians"
    slug: "politicians"
  - name: "Other"
    slug: "other"
  - name: "Politics"
    slug: "politics"
  - name: "Entrepreneurship"
    slug: "entrepreneurship"
  - name: "Literature"
    slug: "literature"
  - name: "United States"
    slug: "united-states"
  - name: "Americas"
    slug: "americas"
  - name: "19th Century"
    slug: "19th-century"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q162269"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Jefferson%20Davis"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AC%D9%81%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86_%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%B3"
    title: "جفرسون ديفيس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AC%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86_%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%B3"
    title: "جيفيرسون ديفيس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AC%D9%81%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86_%D8%AF%DB%8C%D9%88%DB%8C%D8%B3"
    title: "جفرسون دیویس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cefferson_Devis"
    title: "Cefferson Devis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be_x_old.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B6%D1%8D%D1%84%D1%8D%D1%80%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%94%D1%8D%D0%B2%D1%96%D1%81"
    title: "Джэфэрсан Дэвіс"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B6%D1%8D%D1%84%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%94%D1%8D%D0%B2%D1%96%D1%81"
    title: "Джэферсан Дэвіс"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%B5%D1%84%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%81%D1%8A%D0%BD_%D0%94%D0%B5%D0%B9%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%81"
    title: "Джеферсън Дейвис"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Jefferson Davis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Jefferson Davis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Jefferson Davis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Jefferson Davis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Jefferson Davis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Jefferson Davis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Jefferson Davis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A4%CE%B6%CE%AD%CF%86%CE%B5%CF%81%CF%83%CE%BF%CE%BD_%CE%9D%CF%84%CE%AD%CE%B7%CE%B2%CE%B9%CF%82"
    title: "Τζέφερσον Ντέηβις"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Jefferson Davis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Jefferson Davis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Jefferson Davis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Jefferson Davis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AC%D9%81%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86_%D8%AF%DB%8C%D9%88%DB%8C%D8%B3"
    title: "جفرسون دیویس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Jefferson Davis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Jefferson Davis"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikiquote.org/wiki/Devis_Cefferson"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://bs.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://de.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://eo.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born in Kentucky in 1808, the youngest of ten, Davis grew up in Mississippi and graduated from West Point. He served as an Army lieutenant, married Sarah Knox Taylor in 1835 (she died of malaria three months later), and became a cotton planter who eventually enslaved 113 people on his brother's land. He remarried in 1845, won a House seat the same year, fought in the Mexican–American War as a colonel, then moved through the Senate and a term as Franklin Pierce's Secretary of War before returning to the Senate in 1857. When Mississippi seceded in 1861, he resigned and was named president of the Confederate States. After the Confederacy fell in 1865, he was captured and imprisoned at Fort Monroe for two years—accused of Lincoln's assassination and treason, but never tried. He died in 1889, by then recast by some as a hero of the Lost Cause, though his memorials have increasingly come down in the century since.