Nelson Tift (23 July 1810-21 November 1891) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-GA 2) from 25 July 1868 to 3 March 1869, preceding Richard H. Whiteley.
Biography[]
Nelson Tift was born in Groton, Connecticut in 1810, and he moved with his family to Key West, Florida during the 1820s and then to Augusta, Georgia in 1830, setting up a small trading post in Albany. He served on the Baker County Inferior Court from 1840 to 1841 and owned eleven slaves, and he served in the State House in 1841, 1847, and from 1851 to 1852, supporting the reopening of the Atlantic slave trade to ensure that all white Georgians owned slaves. During the American Civil War, he served in the Confederate States Navy, and, after the war, he served in the US House of Representatives from 1868 to 1869 as a Democrat. He died in 1891.