Yancey, William Lowndes

1814- Born in Ogeechee Falls, Warren County, Ga.

1820s-1830s
- got into preparatory school and Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.
- studied law in Sparta, Ga.
- 1834, he got admitted to the bar and began his practice in Greenville, S.C.
- 1836, he transferred to Cahawba, Ala.
- took a break from practicing law and ventured into becoming a cotton planter then editor of the Cahawba Democrat and the Cahawba Gazette
1839, he moved to Wetumpka, Alabama and continued his practice

1841 - became a member of the State house of representatives

1843 - emerged to becoming a senator
- he was the Democrat to the Twenty-eighth Congress filling in the slot after the resignation of Dixon H. Lewis

1844-1846
- Democrat to the Twenty-ninth Congress

1846 - resigned and transferred to Montgomery, Alabama

1846-1861
- between these years, he argued that the South could find security only outside the Union

1848, 1856, 1860
- represented the state to the Democratic National Convention

1850s
- leader of the so-called "Fire-Eaters—extreme southern politician," advocates of secession in the 1850s

1861
- headed the unsuccessful mission to Europe to gain diplomatic recognition for the new nation

1862
- elected to the Confederate senate

1863- died in Alabama at his plantation home