Abraham Watkins Venable

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Abraham Watkins Venable (October 17, 1799 – February 24, 1876) was an American lawyer and politician from North Carolina. He was born at his Virginia family plantation in Prince Edward County and came from the Venable family, with uncles Abraham B. Venable and Richard N. Venable nearby in public life. He studied at Hampden–Sydney College, graduating in 1816, briefly studied medicine, then turned to law. He finished at Princeton University in 1819, and was admitted to the bar in 1821. Venable practiced law in Virginia until 1829, when he moved to North Carolina.

Venable was active in Democratic politics. He served as a presidential elector in 1832, 1836, and 1844. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina’s 5th district, serving from 1847 to 1853. He did not win reelection in 1852. He was again a presidential elector in 1860, voting for John C. Breckinridge.

During the Civil War, Venable joined the Confederacy. He was elected to the Provisional Confederate Congress, serving from July 1861 to February 1862, and then to the First Confederate Congress from 1862 to 1864. He was also a planter and an enslaver.

Venable died in Oxford, North Carolina, in 1876 and was buried at Shiloh Presbyterian Churchyard in Granville County, North Carolina.