Archibald Atkinson (September 15, 1792 – January 7, 1872) was a 19th Century American lawyer and slave owner who served three terms as a U.S. Representative from Virginia from 1843 to 1849. He was a veteran of the War of 1812.

Biography

Born in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, Atkinson received a liberal education.

Education and early career

He attended the law department of the College of William & Mary (now the Marshall-Wythe School of Law), Williamsburg, Virginia. He served during the War of 1812 and was later admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Smithfield, Virginia.

Virginia legislature

He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1815 to 1817 and from 1828 to 1831, and served in the Virginia Senate from 1839 to 1843.

Congress

Atkinson was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, and Thirtieth Congresses (March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1849). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1848 to the Thirty-first Congress. In a valedictory speech to Congress in 1849, he described slavery as a "positive moral good" for those enslaved, claimed that the "well-fed, well-clad, contented negro of Virginia asks not your sympathy for him," and falsely claimed that slaves would rise up against abolitionists.

Later career and death

He served as prosecuting attorney for Isle of Wight County. He died in Smithfield, Virginia, on January 7, 1872. He was interred in the graveyard of Old St. Luke's Church, four miles southeast of Smithfield.

Elections

Sources