Henry Watkins Collier (17 January 1801-28 August 1855) was the Democratic Governor of Alabama from 17 December 1849 to 20 December 1853, succeeding Reuben Chapman and preceding John A. Winston.
Biography[]
Henry Watkins Collier was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia in 1801, and he moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1823. He served on the state supreme court for 18 years and served as Governor from 1849 to 1853, and he was a staunch supporter of slavery who forbade discussions of abolitionism in his presence. He was also a staunch Francophobe, insulting French diplomats by not meeting with them and then finding them morally profligate and frivolous when he did meet them, alienating the French expatriate business community in Mobile. In 1852, Collier declined nomination to the US Senate, and he died in 1855.