Jefferson Davis began in the United States Army after graduating from West Point in 1828. Frontier service preceded his resignation in 1835 and life as a Mississippi planter whose wealth depended on enslaved labour. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1845, he left Congress to command the Mississippi Rifles during the Mexican-American War. Wounded at Buena Vista in 1847, he gained a reputation that supported his political rise. He subsequently served in the Senate and advocated southern interests within the expanding United States.

As secretary of war under Franklin Pierce from 1853 to 1857, Davis promoted army modernization, exploration for transcontinental rail routes and federal construction projects. His return to the Senate brought renewed defence of slavery and demands for its protection in the territories. Although he participated in efforts to find compromise during the secession crisis, he resigned in January 1861 when Mississippi left the Union. His arguments about constitutional rights and state sovereignty were inseparable from preserving the slaveholding order threatened by Republican success.

Chosen provisional president of the Confederacy in February 1861 and later elected to its permanent presidency, Davis directed a government organized for independence through war. He appointed Robert E. Lee to command the Army of Northern Virginia in 1862, but other choices and relationships with commanders produced disputes. Mobilization required taxation, conscription and central control that conflicted with the states' rights principles invoked in secession. Governors resisted demands, shortages deepened and inflation weakened civilian life. Diplomatic efforts failed to secure recognition, while Union military and industrial resources increased pressure across several fronts.

After the collapse of Confederate resistance, Davis was captured in Georgia in May 1865 and imprisoned at Fort Monroe for two years. Indicted for treason, he was released on bail and never brought to trial. In later years he pursued business ventures and wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, published in 1881, defending secession and the Confederate cause. Such arguments contributed to remembrance that minimized slavery's central role in the conflict. He died in New Orleans in 1889. His career connects federal service with rebellion, and constitutional arguments with defence of human bondage. His administration must be assessed alongside its purposes.