William Littleton Harris

William Littleton Harris (1807–1868) was a Mississippi jurist.

Born in Elbert County, Georgia, in 1807, Harris graduated from the University of Georgia at the age of fifteen, and read law to be admitted to the bar. His admission required an act of the legislature, due to his status as a minor. Harris moved to Mississippi in 1837 and lived in Lowndes County, where he successfully established a large legal practice.

Harris became as a circuit judge in 1853, and in 1856 helped write the Mississippi code of 1857.

In 1858 Harris joined the Mississippi High Court of Errors and Appeals).

His best-known opinion was Mitchell v. Wells, decided in 1859. The case prohibited a formerly enslaved woman from inheriting from the estate of her white father.

In essence, it held that once someone was a slave in Mississippi she would always be considered a slave, even though her father (and owner) had taken her to Ohio and freed her. The case illustrates the extreme southern position; it illustrates the uncompromising nature of southern law on the eve of Civil War.

In 1860 President James Buchanan tendered him the appointment to a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States, but Harris declined "because of the impending secession".

Instead of taking a seat on the Supreme Court, Harris took a position as a commissioner, in which he was appointed by Georgia by Mississippi Governor, John J. Pettus.

On December 17, 1860, Harris delivered an address to the Georgia General Assembly, in Milledgeville, supporting secession:

"I am instructed by the resolution from which I derive my mission, to inform the State of Georgia, that Mississippi has passed an act calling a convention of her people, to consider the present threatening relations of the Northern and Southern sections of the Confederacy -- aggravated by the recent election of a President, upon principles of hostility to the States of the South; and to express the earnest hope of Mississippi, that this State will co-operate with her in the adoption of efficient measures for their common defence and safety.

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