John Baptista Bertrand (11 October 1802-18 June 1860) was an American Democratic politician and planter from South Carolina.
Biography[]
John Baptista Bertrand was born in Walterboro, South Carolina in 1802, the son of Eleuthere Bertrand and Marceline Devereaux, refugees from the Haitian Revolution on Saint-Domingue. He was raised in a staunchly pro-slavery and racist family, and Bertrand, while moderate in his politics, was a strong supporter of the institution of slavery in the American South. He trained as a lawyer before serving in the State House from 1825 to 1829, after which he dedicated much of his time to managing his estate near Canadys. Bertrand remained loyal to the Democratic Party during the Nullification Crisis and assailed the Nullifiers for their treason, but he welcomed them back into his social circle after the crisis abated. Bertrand remained a quiet planter until the reignition of the slavery debate during the late 1840s and early 1850s, and he gave speeches both supporting white supremacism and opposing secession. In an 1856 speech, Bertrand spoke of the necessity of maintaining "the loving loyalty that binds our kindred South together, within a union maintained by willing compromise and the actions of sensible men." Bertrand affiliated himself with the Constitutional Union Party on the eve of the 1860 presidential election, but he died of fever than June, just six months before his state seceded.