Alexander Rives

Alexander Rives (June 17, 1806 – September 17, 1885) was a Virginia attorney, politician and plantation owner. He served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, as a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia and as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. Early and family life Born on June 17, 1806, in Oak Ridge, Nelson County, Virginia to the former Margaret (Peggy) Cabell (c. 1770–1815) and her husband Robert Rives (1764–1845), Rives was related to the First Families of Virginia through his mother and later wife. His father Robert Rives of Sussex County had served in the patriot army during the final Yorktown campaign, then became a commission merchant (first operating as Robert Rives and Company and later as Brown, Rives and Company), with Thomas Jefferson as one of his clients. He built a plantation, Oak Hill, in Nelson County in 1802, where he would bury his wife, and later be buried. On his death in 1845, the personal estate of Rives Sr. would be valued at $100,000 (~$ in ) and included lands in Albemarle, Buckingham, Campbell and Nelson Counties. His elder brother William C. Rives would become a Virginia and federal legislator as well as twice U.S. Minister to France, and Robert Rives Jr. (1798–1869) would also serve in the Virginia House of Delegates. His distant nephew Alexander Brown wrote books about the early history of Virginia as well as The Cabells and their Kin. Rives graduated from Hampden–Sydney College in 1825 and from the University of Virginia in 1829. Career Like his father and other family members, Rives operated his plantations using enslaved labor. In the 1830 federal census, he owned one enslaved man, an enslaved woman also between 20 and 30 years old, and a girl in Albemarle County. A decade later, Rives owned 17 enslaved men and boys and 13 enslaved women and girls. In the 1850 federal census, Rives owned 69 slaves in Albemarle County. In the final prewar census, Rives owned 66 slaves in Albemarle County. His brother or nephew Robert Rives Jr. owned 43 slaves in Albemarle County in 1850. and 70 slaves a decade later. His other brother William C. Rives owned slightly more enslaved people in the county's Frederickville section. Following the war, Judge Rives continued to operate the farms using paid labor until entering the federal judicial service in 1871, as described below.