The Great African American Heroes and Patriots of US History
When we talk about US history and the great men and women who founded this country, we often mention the white forefathers and patriots who helped build this nation. For many centuries, the contribution of people of color, especially to African Americans, to US nation-building has been tucked away to the hidden pages of history. With a rich African American heritage, the United States have lots of great men of color who helped shape the history of this country.
Wentworth Cheswell
(April 11, 1746 - March 8, 1817)
Born in Newmarket, New Hampshire to a bi-racial father and a European mother, Wentworth Cheswell is considered by George Mason University as the first African American to be elected to public office. He was elected as town constable in 1768 and then served other local government positions every year but one until he died in 1817. He was an assessor, auditor, Justice of the Peace, teacher, historian, and a Revolutionary War veteran.
Robert B. Elliot
(August 11, 1842 - August 9, 1884)
Robert B. Elliot was born in Liverpool, England, and attended the High Holborn Academy in London. He then studied law and graduated from Eton College in 1859. Later, he decided to join the British Royal Navy. in 1867, he settled in South Carolina at the age of 25, admitted to the South Carolina Bar a year later, and then practiced law in Columbia. In 1868, he was also elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. After a year, he was appointed assistant adjutant-general and became the first African-American commanding general of the South Carolina National Guard. Elliot later was elected as representative to the Forty-second US Congress.
Benjamin Banneker
(November 9, 1731 - October 19, 1806)
Born in Baltimore County, Maryland, to a free African-American mother and freed slave father, Banneker was an almanac author, surveyor, landowner, and farmer. He knows mathematics and natural history. Though most of his education was self-taught, he rose to prominence and became part of the team that surveyed the original borders of the District of Columbia led by Major Andre Elliott. He also acquired a great knowledge of astronomy, believed to be passed down from his grandfather, which helped him publish as series of almanacs.
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Prince Whipple
(1759 - 1796)
Born in Ambou, Ghana to a comparatively wealthy family and arrived in America with the hopes of getting educated, Prince Whipple was sold as a slave when he arrived with his cousin in Baltimore. He fell to General William Whipple who later emancipated Prince during the American Revolutionary War. Even as a freeman, he continued to accompany his former owner during the war. Legend has it that Prince was with General Whipple and then General George Washington during the crossing of Delaware to the Battle of Trenton.
Peter Salem
(October 1, 1750 - August 16, 1816)
Peter Salem was a slave born in Framingham, Province of Massachusetts Bay. He was originally owned by Jeremiah Belknap, who later sold him to Major Lawson Buckminster. Major Buckminster then gave Salem his freedom in 1775 in order for him to enlist in the patriot militia that later became the American Revolution. He fought for the Continental Army for a total of five years, including his involvement in the famed Battle of bunker Hill during the Siege of Boston.
Lemuel Haynes
(July 18, 1753 - September 28, 1833)
Lemuel Haynes was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, and was a child of mixed race. As a child, he served as an indentured laborer in the house of Deacon David Rose, a farmer in Granville, Massachusetts. As a boy, he was a regular churchgoer and was exposed to Calvinistic doctrines that greatly influenced his religious upbringing. He later became a young preacher, as well as served in the militia during the American Revolution. In 1785, he was ordained in the Congregational church which made him the first black man in the United States to be ordained as a minister.
James Armistead Lafayette
(1748/1760 - 1830/1832)
Most sources say that Armistead was born in New Kent County, Virginia as an enslaved man. He was owned by William Armistead. He served the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War under Marquis de Lafayette. He became a double agent against the British Army after his supposed defection. As a double agent, he fed the British false information while giving the American troops detailed accounts of the plans of the British.
Robert Smalls
(April 5, 1839 – February 23, 1915)
Born Beaufort, South Carolina, Robert Small was a slave who freed himself, his crew, and their families by taking control of a Confederate transport ship, CSS Planter, during the American Civil War. He sailed the ship from Charleston harbor through Confederate-controlled waters to the Union blockade surrounding it. He then captained the ship to the Union enclave in Beaufort-Port Royal-Hilton Head area, where it was converted into a Union warship. His valor and courage convinced President Abraham Lincoln to include African-American soldiers into the Union Army. After the war, he entered politics and was elected to the South Carolina State legislature and later to the US House of Representatives.
Hiram Rhodes Revels
(September 27, 1827 - January 16, 1901)
A free-born African-American from North Carolina who later lived and worked in Ohio, Hiram Rhodes Revels became the first African-American to be elected to the US Congress when he was elected as a US Senator representing Mississippi in 1870 and 1871. During the Civil War, he helped organize two regiments of the United States Colored Troops. He also served as a chaplain for the Union army. After his stint as a Senator, he was appointed as the first president of Alcorn Agricultural College (now Alcorn State University) for two terms from 1971 to 1873 and 1876 to 1882. After that, he returned to being a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Joseph Hayne Rainey
(June 21, 1832 - August 1, 1887)
Born into slavery in Georgetown, South Carolina, he became a free man when his father purchased their family’s freedom in the 1840s. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, he was among the free black people who were conscripted by the Confederates to work on the fortifications in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1870, he was elected to State Senate of South Carolina and then won as South Carolina’s representative to the Forty-first Congress of the United States. Rainey is recognized as the first black person to served in the US House of Representatives and the second African-American in the United States Congress.
Benjamin S. Turner
(March 17, 1825 - March 21, 1894)
Turner was born to slave parents in Halifax County, North Carolina, and was taken by his mother to Alabama at the age of five due to force migration of the internal slave trade. He probably remained as a slave until the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. He then became a businessman and founded a livery stable in Selma, Alabama. He joined the Republican Party and was elected as tax collector of Dallas County, Alabama in 1867 then councilman of the city of Selma in 1869. He became a US congressman representing the 1st congressional district of Alabama in the 42nd United States Congress.
Josiah Thomas Walls
(December 30, 1842 - May 15, 1095)
Walls was born as a slave in 1842 near Winchester, Virginia. He was forced to join and work for the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. In 1862, he was captured in Yorktown by the Union Army, and a year later, he joined the US Colored Troops and rose to the rank of corporal. He finished his service in Florida and settled in Alachua County, Florida. From 1871 - 1876, he served as the first African-American representative of Florida in the United States Congress during the Reconstruction Era. He was also elected to four terms in the Florida Senate.
Robert C. De Large
(March 14, 1842 - February 14, 1847)
Robert De Large was born to mixed-race parents in Aiken, South Carolina. His family was slaveholders and part of the mulatto elite of Charleston. After his high school education, he became a tailor and farmer. During the Civil War, he was conscripted by the Confederate Navy where he earned a considerate sum and established a stake when the war was over. In 1868, he was elected as a delegate to the South Carolina Constitutional Convention. Later on, he was elected as representative to the South Carolina House of Representatives, and then to the United States Congress.
The United States was built through the works, struggles, and sacrifices of its forefathers - African Americans included. There are much more to learn about these great men who helped build the country to what it is today. African American heritage must continuously be discovered, learned, and celebrated. And what a great way to this is by going on an African American heritage tour to learn more about the contributions these people of color gave to this great nation.
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