Although I have not specifically been to this location, I have been reading up on it. And I have learned quite a bit about this location and about Alexander Hamilton Stephens....the Vice President of the Confederate States of America.
This state park is located in Crawfordville, Georgia and has 1,189 acres. The focal point of this property is a home called "Liberty Hall" because any stranger who passed through was at "liberty to stay" at his home in a section (which the servants called) "Tramp Room".
In 1834, Alexander Stephens (also known as "Little Aleck") came to study law at Liberty Hall under the tutelage of Williamson Bird. When Bird died in 1845, Stephens bought the property. The first thing that he did was tear down the main building and build a house in the Victorian style. Today, this house is restored and open to the public.
He has a law library in the house which he used when teaching law to others. He also sent dozens of local men to college.
After the Civil War, Alexander Stephens was imprisoned and during this time, he wrote a 2-volume work called "A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States". After he was released from prison, he was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Senator from Georgia, but Congress was still extremely bitter about the Civil War and he was not allowed his seat.
From 1872-1882, he served in the House of Representatives. And was Governor of Georgia until his death in 1883.
There is a Confederate Museum next to the main building. This museum houses military, political, and domestic artifacts from the Civil War era. Because this is a state park, there is a nominal fee to get in (2.75-4.00). But overall it sounds like this would be a pretty good place to visit.
I've never been a big fan of A. H. Stephens. I always considered him a little weasel. A nasty man who should never have gotten to the position that he was in....but after reading up on him, my views have changed. He taught others law....not an easy feat. And he also spent his own money to help send men to college. That would not be the characteristics of a "weasel" but of a man who truly cared about his fellow mankind.
Maybe Stephens wasn't the man I thought he was....and one day I will get to Georgia and spend some time walking in the halls of his home to get an even better feel of who this man really was.
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