Bancroft, George

Life Span
to
    Full name
    George Bancroft
    Place of Birth
    Burial Place
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    Origins
    Free State
    No. of Spouses
    2
    No. of Children
    3
    Family
    Aaron Bancroft (father), Lucretia Chandler (mother), Sarah Dwight (first wife), Elizabeth Davis Bliss (second wife)
    Education
    Harvard
    Other
    Other Education
    University of Göttingen (Germany)
    Occupation
    Politician
    Diplomat
    Educator
    Writer or Artist
    Relation to Slavery
    White non-slaveholder
    Political Parties
    Democratic
    Government
    Van Buren Administration (1837-41)
    Polk Administration (1845-49)
    Johnson Administration (1865-69)
    Grant Administration (1869-77)
    Diplomat

    George Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    As secretary [of the navy] Bancroft acquired first-hand experience at conducting foreign policy in a democratic society. He also helped found the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and tried to streamline the Navy Department. Bancroft was instrumental in the acquisition of California, ordering the Pacific Naval Squadron in June 1845 to occupy San Francisco and other ports in case of war, and he defended President Polk against the charge that the president was party to a nefarious southern plot to extend slavery. Bancroft believed that the Mexican War, of which he was an enthusiastic supporter, was a god-sent opportunity to enlarge the national domain for liberty. The vociferous antiwar sentiment, the shifting political alliances the war created, and the strange bedfellows it produced astounded Bancroft.
    Lilian Handlin, "Bancroft, George," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/14/14-00034.html.
    How to Cite This Page: "Bancroft, George," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/38439.