David Brydie Mitchell (1766 - 1837)

Born 22 Oct 1766 in Muthill, Perthshire, Scotland

Descendants

Died 22 Apr 1837 at age 70 in Milledgeville, Baldwin, Georgia, United States

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Preceded by 22nd Governor Jared Irwin 28th Governor Peter Early

David Brydie Mitchell 27th Governor of Georgia 1809—1813 and 1815—1817

Succeeded by 28th Governor Peter Early 29th Governor William Rabun

Preceded by 11th Mayor Thomas Gibbons

David Brydie Mitchell 12th Mayor of Savannah, Georgia July 13, 1801 - July 12, 1802

Succeeded by 13th Mayor Charles Harris

Biography

David Mitchell is Notable.

David Mitchell migrated from Scotland to Savannah, Georgia.

David B. Mitchell was a three time Georgia Governor, held numerous political offices in the State and was a Mayor of Savannah, Georgia.

The son of John Henry Mitchell and Annie Brydie. He inherited property in Savannah, Georgia from his uncle, David Brydie. Mitchell emigrated to the Georgia in 1782. While in Savannah, he studied law under William Stephens, another well known politician. In 1789, Mitchell joined the bar and acquired U.S. citizenship.

Marriage

In 1792, Mitchell married Jane Mills.

Children

1. William Mitchell
2. John Mitchell
3. Sara Mitchell
4. Edward Mitchell
5. Mary Mitchell
6. David Mitchell II

Political Career

1794: Georgia House Representative (2 terms, 1794-1798)

1798: Judge of the Eastern Circuit of the Superior Court of Georgia (1798-1801)

1801: 12th Mayor of Savannah, Georgia

1803: U.S. Attorney

1804: Georgia State Senator

1806: Major General of the Georgia Militia

1809: 27th Governor of the State of Georgia

1811: Highway Board

1810: Charter of the Bank of Augusta

1815: Governor of the State of Georgia

1817: U.S. Agent to the Creek Indians, appointed President James Madison

1828: Judge of the Inferior Court of Baldwin County, Georgia.

1836: Georgia State Senator

African Importation Case of 1820

In 1817, Mitchell was appointed by President James Monroe to the United States Indian agent to the Creek Nation. While serving as the US Indian Agent, he was implicated inthe importation of Africans into the United States in violation of the Nonimportation Act of Congress (signed into law on March 2, 1807 and effective as of January 1, 1808. This legistlation was heavily promoted by Thomas Jefferson who mentioned it in his 1806 State of the Union Address. Note that the Domestic Slave Trade within the U.S. was not affected by this law.

Mitchell was accused, by John Clark, of having smuggled African slaves into Georgia and transported them to Alabama, in violation of federal law banning the African slave trade. Dismissed from his post in 1821 by U.S. president James Monroe, Mitchell soon thereafter, in an attempt to clear his name, published An Exposition on the Case of the Africans Taken to the Creek Agency by Captain William Bowen (1822).

His reputation slightly less tarnished, Mitchell returned to politics as a Judge and as an elected State Senator.

Death and Burial

David B. Mitchell died on April 22, 1837.

He is buried in Memory Hill Cemetery in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Links

• Family Search: PID #: KHH3-2MC
• Freebooters and Smugglers: The Foreign Slave Trade in the United States after 1808 by Ernest Obadele-starks. University of Arkansas Press; Illustrated edition (1 November 2007). Pages 209-210.
• University of Chicago, Journal of Negro History: David Brydie Mitchell and the African Importation Case of 1820 by Royce Gordon Shingleton. Volume 58, Number 3
• African Case, Deposition of William S. Mitchell, Original Handwritten Document. David Brydie Mitchell and the African Importation Case of 1820
• Georgia Archives: Resource Availibility Guide for "The African Case"

David Bradie Mitchell bio

^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ "Memoirs of Georgia, Volume 1", The Southern Historical Association, Atlanta, Georgia, 1895, pg 230.

• New Georgia Encyclopedia: Biography of David B. Mitchell
• Rentz, Thomas Henry Sr. The Public Life of David B. Mitchell. M. A. Thesis, University of Georgia 1955.
• 1837 Find A Grave, Memory Hill Cemetery, Milledgeville, Baldwin Co., GA Find A Grave: Memorial #7958642

See Also:

• Wikipedia: David Brydie Mitchell
• Wikidata: Item Q1173854, en:Wikipedia