Richard Kidder Meade

Richard Kidder Meade, Jr. (July 29, 1803 – April 20, 1862) was a Virginia lawyer, plantation owner, and Democratic politician who served in the Virginia Senate and in the United States House of Representatives, and later as United States Minister to Brazil under President James Buchanan, before returning to Virginia to work for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War until his death. His congressional service spanned three terms during a formative period in American political history, in which he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Virginia constituents.

Meade was born on July 29, 1803, in what was then Frederick County, in the northwestern corner of Virginia. He was the son of Mary Fitzhugh Grymes Randolph and Richard Kidder Meade, both of whom were connected to prominent Tidewater and Southside Virginia families. His paternal line traced back to Andrew Meade, an Irish emigrant, and possibly Andrew’s son David Meade (circa 1710–1757), who settled in Nansemond County, Virginia. The family became notable patriots during the colonial and Revolutionary periods. His grandfather David Meade (Jr.) (1744 – after 1796) served in the House of Burgesses after addressing problems in his local parish and supported the patriot cause during the American Revolution by providing provisions while his brothers served as officers and aides to General George Washington. David Meade owned enslaved persons in Nansemond County in 1787, and possibly in Elizabeth City County, before ultimately moving to Jessamine County, Kentucky, where he died. Meade’s paternal grandmother, Susana Everard, was the daughter of Sir Richard Everard, 4th Baronet and a colonial governor of North Carolina, further underscoring the family’s political and social prominence.

Meade’s father and his uncle Everard Meade were educated at Harrow in England, reflecting the family’s elite status. Meade and his brother William Meade, who would remain in Frederick County and become the Episcopal Bishop of Virginia, were educated by private tutors in keeping with their class. Meade also pursued the study of law, preparing for a professional career that would combine legal practice, landholding, and public office. This background, rooted in both the Revolutionary patriot tradition and the planter aristocracy of Virginia, shaped his later political alignment and his representation of Southside Virginia interests in state and national government.

On November 3, 1825, Meade married Julia Edmunds Haskins in Petersburg, Virginia. The couple had several children, including sons Richard Kidder Meade [III] (1835–1862), Hugh Everard Meade (1838–1862), and David Meade (1845–1929), as well as daughters Susan Meade Bolling (d. 1861), Indiana (1826–1898), Julia (b. 1831), Mary (b. 1839), and Marion (b. 1842). The family’s life was centered in Petersburg and on their plantation holdings in Southside Virginia, and several of Meade’s children would be directly affected by the upheavals of the Civil War era.

After studying law, Meade was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Petersburg, Virginia, an important commercial and political center in the state. In addition to his legal work, he became a plantation owner in St. Andrews Parish, Brunswick County, near Lawrenceville, reflecting the dual role of many Virginia lawyers as both professionals and agricultural proprietors. Census records document the scale of his slaveholding and household. In the 1820 U.S. Census, this Richard Kidder Meade owned 55 enslaved persons, and his household included 16 free white persons. By the 1830 U.S. Census, he owned 43 enslaved persons and his household included three other white persons. The 1840 U.S. Census for Dinwiddie County shows his household as including 10 white persons and 15 enslaved persons. These early censuses did not list family members by name, but they attest to his status as a substantial slaveholding planter. By 1836, Meade had also become an investor in the Brunswick Land Company, which engaged in land investment and speculation in Texas, indicating his interest in broader economic opportunities beyond Virginia. By 1860, the U.S. Federal Census listed him in Petersburg’s south ward with many family members, and recorded his personal estate at $7,000 and his real estate at $20,000.

Meade’s political career began at the state level. In 1836, he was elected to the Virginia State Senate, representing the Southside counties of Brunswick, Dinwiddie, and Greensville from 1835 to 1838. He succeeded George C. Dromgoole, who had been elected to the U.S. Congress. In the Senate, Meade represented a region heavily tied to plantation agriculture and slavery, and his service there helped establish his reputation within the Democratic Party as a spokesman for his section of the state. His legislative experience in Richmond prepared him for national office and connected him to the broader Democratic coalition that dominated Virginia politics in the antebellum period.

When Congressman George C. Dromgoole died, Meade was elected as a Democrat to the Thirtieth Congress to fill the resulting vacancy. Representing Virginia’s 2nd congressional district, he entered the U.S. House of Representatives on August 5, 1847. In the 1847 special election, Meade was elected with 53.91 percent of the vote, defeating Whig candidate George W. Bolling. He was subsequently re-elected to the Thirty-first Congress in 1849 with 88.67 percent of the vote, defeating Whig S. J. Weisigner and an Independent candidate identified only as Shell. In 1851, he was re-elected unopposed to the Thirty-second Congress. His service in the House extended from August 5, 1847, to March 3, 1853, a period marked by intense national debates over slavery, territorial expansion, and sectional compromise. As a Democratic representative from a slaveholding district, Meade participated in the legislative process during this significant period in American history, consistently representing the interests of his constituents in Southside Virginia. At the conclusion of his third term, his seat was taken by John Singleton Millson. In 1853, President Franklin Pierce offered Meade the post of chargé d’affaires to the Kingdom of Sardinia, but Meade declined the appointment.

Meade remained an active Democrat and became a strong supporter of President James Buchanan. In recognition of his loyalty and service, Buchanan appointed him United States Minister to Brazil. After confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Meade assumed the post on July 27, 1857. He served as minister at Rio de Janeiro until July 9, 1861, representing American interests in the Brazilian Empire during a period when both nations were slaveholding societies and when U.S. foreign policy in Latin America was increasingly attentive to commercial and strategic concerns. He was succeeded in the post by James Watson Webb. His diplomatic service extended through the final years of the Buchanan administration and into the early months of the Lincoln administration, overlapping with the secession crisis and the outbreak of the Civil War.

Upon the election of President Abraham Lincoln and the secession of Southern states, Meade resigned his diplomatic post, returned to Virginia, and devoted himself to the cause of the Confederacy. Drawing on his long-standing ties to the Democratic Party and the planter class, he aligned with the Confederate States of America, while his older sons also volunteered for Confederate service. Remaining in Petersburg, a key rail and supply center for the Confederacy, he contributed his experience and influence to the Southern war effort during the early stages of the conflict.

Richard Kidder Meade died in Petersburg, Virginia, on April 20, 1862. His life spanned from the early national period through the secession crisis and the first year of the Civil War, and his career reflected the trajectory of many Virginia political leaders of his generation: from Revolutionary-descended planter and state legislator, to Democratic congressman and diplomat, and finally to supporter of the Confederacy in its bid to leave the Union.