Polk, Leonidas Lafayette
Item
- Connection to Legacies of American Slavery Database
- Name
- One-line bio
- Biography
- Date of Birth
- Date of Death
- Historical Period
- Related Organization(s)
- Related Person(s)
- Wikidata Link
- Learn More About this Subject
-
Polk, Leonidas Lafayette
-
Leonidas L. Polk was an agrarian and educational advocate who Meredith College identifies as one of its three founders.
-
Leonidas L. Polk was born into a slaveowning family in Anson County, North Carolina in 1837. Prior to the Civil War he enslaved 17 people on his family farm. Although a Whig Unionist before the firing on Fort Sumter, during the Civil War he served as an officer in the North Carolina militia and the Confederate Army where he rose to the rank of second lieutenant until his election to the North Carolina state legislature. After the war, Polk was active in promoting both educational and agricultural reform in North Carolina. He is credited with playing significant roles in the founding of North Carolina State University and Meredith College. Polk served as North Carolina's first Commissioner of Agriculture and later founded the Progressive Farmer magazine which he used to promote his ideas for improving the lot of farmers. Growing dissatisfied with the Democratic Party's response to agricultural reforms, Polk joined the National Farmers' Alliance rising to its presidency in 1889. Following the formation of the farmer friendly Populist Party many assumed that Polk would be its nominee for President of the United States but his sudden death in June 1892 literally killed his candidacy.
-
24 April 1837
-
11 June 1892
Position: 635 (11 views)