Alexander H. Stephens was born to Margaret Grier and Andrew B. Stephens near Crawfordsville, Georgia. He graduated from the University of Georgia at Athens in 1832, began to serve in the Georgia General Assembly in 1836, and was admitted to the bar in 1841. After being elected to both the State House and Senate, he was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-eighth United States Congress and continued there until 1882, his service only interrupted by the Civil War. Alexander was elected Vice-President of the Confederacy in 1861 and was imprisoned for five months after it was defeated. He was elected governor of Georgia in 1882 and died a few months later.