Wade Hampton I (1752-4 February 1835) was a member of the US House of Representatives (DR-SC 2) from 4 March 1795 to 3 March 1797 (succeeding John Hunter and preceding John Rutledge, Jr.) and from SC-4 from 4 March 1803 to 3 March 1805 (succeeding Richard Winn and preceding O'Brien Smith).
Biography[]
Wade Hampton I was born in South Carolina in 1752, and he served as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the volunteer cavalry during the American Revolutionary War before serving in the US House of Representatives from 1795 to 1797 and from 1803 to 1805. In 1809, he became a Brigadier-General and was sent to the Louisiana Territory, where he suppressed the 1811 Spanish-backed slave revolt on the German Coast of Louisiana. After being defeated at the Battle of the Chateauguay in 1813 during the War of 1812, he resigned his commission in the US Army, and he came to be the wealthiest planter in the United States, owning 3,000 slaves. His son Wade Hampton II and grandson Wade Hampton III went on to become notable South Carolina politicians.