JOHN HUGH MEANS was born in Fairfield District, South Carolina. He attended Mount Zion College in Winnsboro, South Carolina and graduated from South Carolina College in 1832. During his gubernatorial administration, an election was held to select a delegation to a state convention organized to consider secession from the Union. The convention voted overwhelmingly in favor of secession, but in a statewide election held in 1851, the citizens of South Carolina voted against secession unless it was supported by the rest of the south. After leaving office, Means was a delegate to the South Carolina Secession Convention held in 1860. During the Civil War, he held the rank of Colonel in the Confederate Army and was killed at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Virginia.