Ulysses L. Houston

Last updated
Ulysses L. Houston
Member of the GeorgiaHouseofRepresentatives
from the Bryan County district
In office
1868 1868
Original 33
Personal details
Born Grahamville, South Carolina
Political party Republican

Ulysses L. Houston was a pastor and state legislator in Georgia. [1] He was elected to the Georgia State Legislature in 1868, [2] and was an influential organizer in Savannah, Georgia's African-American community during the mid-19th century. [3]

He was born a slave in Grahamville, South Carolina, and was taken by his master Moses Henderson to Savannah, where he served as a house servant. [3] According to the book Redeeming the South religious cultures and racial identities among Southern Baptists: "He learned to read from white sailors while he worked in the city's hospital and earned money by hiring out his time." [3] Licensed to preach in 1855, he was the pastor of the Third African Baptist Church (later renamed the First Bryan Baptist Church) in Savannah, Georgia, a congregation of about 400, [3] from 1861 to 1889. [4] He was twice president of the black Baptist convention in Georgia. [3]

During the American Civil War, Houston was one of the 20 Black church leaders who met with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 12, 1865. He was one of the 16 freedmen in this group. [5] This meeting (which would later be called the "Savannah Colloquy") took place at the Green–Meldrim House, and their discussion directly led to Sherman's Special Field Orders No. 15, which included the famous Forty acres and a mule land allotment. [6]

He was later one of the Original 33 African American legislators of the Reconstruction era in Georgia, expelled or forced to resign.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James D. Lynch</span> American politician

James D. Lynch was a missionary, public official, and state legislator in the United States. He was the first African-American Secretary of State of Mississippi, and a minister.

George Liele was an African American and emancipated slave who became the founding pastor of First Bryan Baptist Church and First African Baptist Church, in Savannah, Georgia (USA). He later would become a missionary to Jamaica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First African Baptist Church (Savannah, Georgia)</span> Historic church in Georgia, United States

First African Baptist Church, located in Savannah, Georgia, claims to be derived from the first black Baptist congregation in North America. While it was not officially organized until 1788, it grew from members who founded a congregation in 1773. Its claim of "first" is contested by the Silver Bluff Baptist Church, Aiken County, South Carolina (1773), and the First Baptist Church of Petersburg, Virginia, whose congregation officially organized in 1774.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion of Black Americans</span> Religious and spiritual practices of African Americans

Religion of Black Americans refers to the religious and spiritual practices of African Americans. Historians generally agree that the religious life of Black Americans "forms the foundation of their community life". Before 1775 there was scattered evidence of organized religion among Black people in the Thirteen Colonies. The Methodist and Baptist churches became much more active in the 1780s. Their growth was quite rapid for the next 150 years, until their membership included the majority of Black Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green–Meldrim House</span> Historic house in Savannah, Georgia, U.S.

The Green–Meldrim House is a historic house at 14 West Macon Street, on the northwest corner of Madison Square, in Savannah, Georgia. Built in 1853, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1976 as one of the American South's finest and most lavish examples of Gothic Revival architecture. The house is owned by the adjacent St. John's Episcopal Church, which offers tours and uses it as a meeting and reception space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David George (Baptist)</span> Historical figure

David George was an African-American Baptist preacher and a Black Loyalist from the American South who escaped to British lines in Savannah, Georgia; later he accepted transport to Nova Scotia and land there. He eventually resettled in Freetown, Sierra Leone where he would eventually die. With other enslaved people, George founded the Silver Bluff Baptist Church in South Carolina in 1775, the first black congregation in the present-day United States. He was later affiliated with the First African Baptist Church of Savannah, Georgia. After migration, he founded Baptist congregations in Nova Scotia and Freetown, Sierra Leone. George wrote an account of his life, an important early slave narratives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Bryan (Baptist)</span>

Andrew Bryan (1737–1812) founded Bryan Street African Baptist Church, affectionately called the Mother Church of Black Baptists, and First African Baptist Church of Savannah in Savannah, Georgia, the first black Baptist churches to be established in America. Bryan was formerly enslaved by Jonathan Bryan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Bryan Baptist Church</span> Historic church in Georgia, United States

Historic First Bryan Baptist Church is an African-American church that was organized in Savannah, Georgia, by Andrew Bryan in 1788. Considered to be the Mother Church of Black Baptists, the site was purchased in 1793 by Bryan, a former slave who had also purchased his freedom. The first structure was erected there in 1794. By 1800 the congregation was large enough to split: those at Bryan Street took the name of First African Baptist Church, and Second and Third African Baptist churches were also established. The current sanctuary of First Bryan Baptist Church was constructed in 1873.

The civil rights movement (1865–1896) aimed to eliminate racial discrimination against African Americans, improve their educational and employment opportunities, and establish their electoral power, just after the abolition of slavery in the United States. The period from 1865 to 1895 saw a tremendous change in the fortunes of the Black community following the elimination of slavery in the South.

Aaron Alpeoria Bradley was a lawyer and civil rights activist in the United States. He was born into slavery, escaped, and became a lawyer in Massachusetts in 1856. After the American Civil War he moved to Georgia. During the Reconstruction Era he was denied admittance to the Georgia Bar, but became a political activist and worked as a lawyer from South Carolina In 1865 he was arrested for his political activism. He was elected as a representative to Georgia's Constitutional Convention of 1867. He was a critic of segregation, police brutality, and capitalism. He advocated for equal rights. He spoke out against "bankers, millionaires, merchants, aristocratic mulattoes, [and] copperheaded Yankees".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James H. DeVotie</span> America Baptist minister (1814–1891)

James Harvey DeVotie (1814–1891) was a Baptist minister in the American South. Born in Oneida County, New York, he was a pastor in South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia. He was a co-founder of Howard College in Marion, Alabama, later known as Samford University near Birmingham. He was a long-time trustee of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He served as a Confederate chaplain during the Civil War. After the war, he worked for the Southern Baptist Convention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emanuel K. Love</span>

Emanuel K. Love was a minister and leader in the Baptist church from Savannah, Georgia. He was pastor of one of the largest churches in the country and was a prominent activist for black civil rights and anti-lynching laws. He played an important role in establishing separate black Baptist national organizations and advocating for black leadership of Baptist institutions, especially schools.

Reverend Romulus Moore was an American politician and leader of the early civil rights movement after the American Civil War during the Reconstruction Era in the U.S. state of Georgia. An African American, Moore was elected to the state legislature in 1868. Moore was expelled from the legislature in 1868 along with other African Americans and reinstated in the Georgia General Assembly in 1870 by an Act of Congress. Reverend Moore was active in advocating the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

William Gaines (1824–1865) was a freed slave, minister, and community representative in Savannah, Georgia. He was one of the 20 Black church leaders—alongside Garrison Frazier, Ulysses L. Houston, and James D. Lynch—who met with Major General William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in Savannah on January 12, 1865 about 3 months before the end of the American Civil War. This meeting took place at the Green–Meldrim House, and their discussion directly led to Sherman's Special Field Orders No. 15, which included the famous Forty acres and a mule land allotment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James M. Simms</span> African-American minister

James Merilus Simms was a minister, newspaper publisher, author, and elected representative in the Georgia Assembly during the Reconstruction era. He was African American.

Alfred Rush was a state representative in South Carolina during the Reconstruction era, serving two non-consecutive terms between 1868 and 1876. Rush was one of four men who represented Darlington County, South Carolina, three of whom were African Americans and one was white. Rush was elected to serve just a few years after the Civil War (1861–1865). He was ambushed and murdered on May 13, 1876.

Holland Thompson was a teacher, state legislator, religious leader, and civil rights advocate in Alabama. He represented Montgomery County, Alabama in the Alabama House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era.

Richard Burke was a Baptist preacher and state representative in Alabama. He was involved in the Union League. A few nights after a political meeting of African Americans, he was murdered. In Sumter County numerous African American Union League members were shot.

Garrison Frazier was an African-American Baptist minister and public figure during the U.S. Civil War. He acted as spokesman for twenty African-American Baptist and Methodist ministers who met on January 12, 1865 with Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, of the Union Army's Military Division of the Mississippi, and with U.S. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, at General Sherman's headquarters in Savannah, Georgia. This meeting is commonly known as the "Savannah Colloquy" or the "Forty acres and a mule" meeting.

Alexander Harris (1818–1909) was an African-American deacon, trustee, interim pastor of the First Bryan Baptist Church and one of the most powerful African-American religious and civil leaders in Savannah, Georgia during the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.

References

  1. Freedom's Lawmakers by Eric Foner Louisiana State University Press (1996) pages 109 and 110
  2. Elmore, Charles J. (2002). Savannah Georgia. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Pub. p. 31. ISBN   073851408X.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Harvey, Paul (1997). Redeeming the South religious cultures and racial identities among Southern Baptists, 1865-1925. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 56. ISBN   0807861952.
  4. "FBBC Timeline" . Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  5. "Minutes of an interview between the colored ministers and church officers at Savannah, Georgia with the Secretary of War and Major General Sherman". January 12, 1865.
  6. Lawton, Laura (2015). Legendary Locals of Savannah. Arcadia Publishing. p. 62. ISBN   9781467101981.