Robert B. Elliott
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Robert Brown Elliott | |
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South Carolina Attorney General | |
In office December 14, 1876 – May 29, 1877 |
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Governor | Contested between Daniel Henry Chamberlain and Wade Hampton III |
Preceded by | Samuel W. Melton |
Succeeded by | James Conner |
28th Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives | |
In office November 24, 1874 – April 14, 1876 |
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Governor | Franklin I. Moses, Jr. Daniel Henry Chamberlain |
Preceded by | Samuel J. Lee |
Succeeded by | William Henry Wallace |
Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Aiken County | |
In office November 24, 1874 – April 14, 1876 |
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Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Barnwell County | |
In office November 24, 1868 – March 1, 1870 |
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Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 3rd district |
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In office March 4, 1871 – November 1, 1874 |
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Preceded by | Solomon L. Hoge |
Succeeded by | Lewis C. Carpenter |
Personal details | |
Born | Liverpool, United Kingdom (claimed) |
August 11, 1842
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
Resting place | St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 |
Political party | Republican |
Profession | lawyer, civil servant |
Signature | Robert B. Elliott's signature |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States of America |
Service/branch | South Carolina National Guard |
Years of service | 1869–1871 |
Rank | Commanding General |
Battles/wars | Reconstruction |
Robert Brown Elliott (August 11, 1842 – August 9, 1884) was an African-American member of the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina, serving from 1871 to 1874.
Early life and education
Not much is known for sure about Elliott's early life.[1] He claimed to have been born Boston, but was likely born in Liverpool, United Kingdom to West Indian parents. In England, he received a basic education and learned to be a typesetter. He may have served in the British Navy before coming to America, and he claimed to have served in the U.S. Navy during the U.S. Civil War[2]
Career
Elliott arrived in South Carolina in 1867 at the age of 25, where he established a law practice. Elliott helped organize the local Republican Party and served in the state constitutional convention.[2] In the late 1860s he was hired by AME bishop and fellow future congressman Richard H. Cain to be an associate editor of the paper, the South Carolina Leader (renamed the Missionary Record in 1868), along with another future congressman, Alonzo J. Ransier[3]
In 1868 he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. The next year he was appointed assistant adjutant-general; he was the first African-American commanding general of the South Carolina National Guard. As part of his job, he helped form a state militia to fight the Ku Klux Klan.[2]
Elliott was elected as a Republican to the Forty-second and Forty-third United States Congress. He "delivered a celebrated speech" in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1875.[4] He resigned on November 1, 1874, to fight political corruption in South Carolina. He served again in the South Carolina House of Representatives, where he was elected as Speaker of the House.[2]
He ran successfully for South Carolina Attorney General in 1876. In the state elections that year, white Democrats regained dominance of the state legislature. The following year, 1877, when the last of the federal troops were withdrawn from South Carolina, he was forced out of office.[2]
He continued to be involved in politics, working on then Treasury Secretary John Sherman’s campaign for President in 1880, and was a delegate to the 1880 Republican National Convention. In January 1881 he was part of a black delegation that met with President James Garfield to protest the lack of civil and political rights in the South. However, his law practice faltered. In 1879, he was appointed a customs inspector for the Treasury Department in Charleston, South Carolina. He contracted malaria while working in that capacity on a trip to Florida. In 1881, he was transferred to New Orleans, and in 1882 he was dismissed. In New Orleans he again attempted to practice law, but found few clients. Impoverished, he died in New Orleans on August 9, 1884.[2]
References
- ↑ Elliott’s background is discussed by his chief biographer. See Peggy Lamson The Glorious Failure: Black Representative Robert Brown Elliott and the Reconstruction in South Carolina (New York: Norton, 1973): 22–33. See also Peggy Lamson “Elliott, Robert Brown,” Dictionary ofAmerican Negro Biography (New York: Norton, 1982): 210–211 (hereinafter referred to as DANB). The most recent scholarship accepts Lamson’s evidence of Elliott’s background. See Stephen Middleton ed., Black Congressmen During Reconstruction:A Documentary Sourcebook (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002): 85–86. see also: Black Americans in Congress - Robert Brown Elliott: Representative, 1871–1874, Republican from South Carolina http://history.house.gov/People/Listing/E/ELLIOTT,-Robert-Brown-(E000128)/
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Black Americans in Congress - Robert Brown Elliott: Representative, 1871–1874, Republican from South Carolina http://history.house.gov/People/Listing/E/ELLIOTT,-Robert-Brown-(E000128)/
- ↑ CAIN, Richard Harvey. History, Art & Archives, United States House of Representatives. [1]
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Further reading
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- Black Americans in Congress - Robert Brown Elliott: Representative, 1871–1874, Republican from South Carolina http://history.house.gov/People/Listing/E/ELLIOTT,-Robert-Brown-(E000128)/
External links
- Robert B. Elliott at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- African American Registry Board
United States House of Representatives | ||
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Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 3rd congressional district 1871–1874 |
Succeeded by Lewis C. Carpenter |
- Pages with broken file links
- 1842 births
- 1884 deaths
- African-American state legislators in South Carolina
- Speakers of the South Carolina House of Representatives
- Members of the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina
- African-American members of the United States House of Representatives
- South Carolina Attorneys General
- People educated at Eton College
- British emigrants to the United States
- Politicians from Liverpool
- South Carolina Republicans
- Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives
- People from Aiken County, South Carolina
- People from Barnwell County, South Carolina
- 19th-century American politicians