More tales of North Carolina's 19th-century African American legislators

Part 2: Veterans of Civil War military service

I have previously introduced readers to a handful of African American legislators elected to the North Carolina General Assembly during the nineteenth century, among more than 125 black state legislators, all Republicans, who held office between 1868 and 1900.

This week, I continue my occasional series on North Carolina’s black public servants during the period, many of whom I have written about in previous articles for the North Carolina Historical Review and in other publications Today’s post explores the lives of a handful of legislators who served in the Union military during the Civil War, before entering politics in North Carolina after the War ended:

George Lawrence Mabson (1845-1885) was born in Wilmington, North Carolina,
to an enslaved mother, Eliza, and her wealthy white owner, George W. Mabson. His younger brother, William P. Mabson, also served in the N.C. General Assembly; other siblings included Whitfield S. Mabson, Bennie Mabson, Bettie Ann Mabson. At age 8, Mabson was sent to Boston for education, where he lived with family friends; he remained there until February 1864, when he enlisted in the Union army and served in the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry during the Civil War. 

His cavalry unit served in Virginia and Maryland during the War, and he was reportedly wounded during an 1864 battle at Petersburg, before being mustered out in October 1865. He returned to his native Wilmington by 1867, where he became active in Republican party politics, and served as a speaker for the Republican Congressional Committee in 1867. In August 1870, he was the successful Republican candidate for one of New Hanover County’s seats in the N.C. House of Representatives, and served in the General Assembly sessions of 1870-1871 and 1871-1872.

Mabson was one of 17 black legislators who signed the “Address to the Colored People of North Carolina” protesting the impeachment of Gov. W. W. Holden, dated December 19, 1870, and published in the Raleigh Sentinel later that month. In 1872, he was elected to the N.C. Senate, representing the Twelfth District (New Hanover County) until the General Assembly adjourned in February 1874. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for the Third District Congressional seat in 1874.

After graduating from Howard University’s Law Department in 1871, he was one of the first black attorneys admitted to the the North Carolina bar. He held a series of federal patronage appointments, including service as the Wilmington customs inspector.

He and his wife, Rosa B. Mabson, a native of Massachusetts, had two children: son George Jr. and daughter, Rebekah or Robertta. Mabson died of natural causes in Wilmington on October 4, 1885, and is buried at that city’s Pine Forest Cemetery.

* * * * * *

William H. McLaurin (1834-1902) was born enslaved in New Hanover County, North Carolina, on May 31, 1834. Little is known about his early life or education, although he appears to have been taught to read by his slave master as a teenager. In September 1862, he escaped and was taken aboard the USS Penobscot, then lying 36 miles below Wilmington. 

He soon enlisted in the U.S. Navy, remaining in service until his honorable discharge at the Brooklyn navy yard in New York in 1863 or 1864.  He remained in Brooklyn until he returned to Wilmington in 1865 under the auspices of the American Freedman’s Aid Association.

He became active in Republican politics, and was elected clerk of the market in 1869; appointed registrar and election judge, 1869-1870, 1873-1874; became a magistrate in 1871; and was appointed a justice of the peace for Harnett Township, New Hanover County, in 1874. In 1870, he owned $400 in real estate, according to that year’s U.S. census listing.

He declined his first nomination for the N.C. House of Representatives in 1870, but still received more than 1,300 votes in that year’s general election. On 1872, he was elected to the N.C. House, and served in the General Assembly sessions of 1872 to 1874.

After completing his legislative term, he was appointed as postmaster at Warsaw, Duplin County, North Carolina, on December 18, 1875, during the second term of President Ulysses S. Grant, and held that office until November 1876.  He later became an A.M.E. minister. In 1876, McLaurin helped organize Wilmington’s second Industrial Fair, which later became a statewide event in Raleigh.

His wife was Betsy Johnson McLaurin; they had six children (five sons, one daughter). McLaurin died in Wilmington on August 29, 1902, and is buried in that city’s Pine Forest Cemetery.

* * * * * * *

Bravet W. Morris (1826-1899?) was born free in New Bern, North Carolina, in 1826.  His first name is spelled in various ways, and sometimes listed incorrectly as Benjamin.  Little is known of his early life or education, although he was literate and became a teacher and A. M. E. minister. He reportedly served as a noncommissioned officer in the Union Army during the Civil War, probably beginning in 1863, before returning to live in New Bern after his discharge. 

In March 1868, he was listed as a Freedmen’s Bureau schoolteacher in New Bern. He soon became active in Republican party politics, and was elected to the N.C. House of Representatives from Craven County in the spring of 1868. He served one term in the N.C. General Assembly, from 1868 to 1870.

Morris was one of 14 black legislators who signed a public statement congratulating Ulysses S. Grant on his election to the U.S. presidency, published December 2, 1868, in the North Carolina Standard.

In 1875, Morris was named as a justice of the peace in Craven County. Among the incorporators of the New Bern Co-operative Land and Building Association, chartered by the N.C. General Assembly in 1869, he was a longtime member of King Solomon’s Lodge A. F. & A.M. No. 1. He lived on Queen Street in New Bern in 1880, according to that year’s U.S. census.

In 1888, Morris was briefly considered as a candidate for the GOP Second Congressional District nomination, which eventually went to Henry P. Cheatham. In 1893, he served as pastor of B. W. Morris’s tabernacle, a church located in Wilmington.

Morris was married to Sarah E. (Catanch) Morris, according to the 1880 U.S. census; they may have had at least one daughter, Beatrice Morris Christian, who died in New York in 1924.

Morris’s death date and place of interment are unknown. He is presumed to have died in North Carolina by early1902, when he was listed as deceased in a Craven County newspaper article.

* * * * * *
John A. White (1847-1903) was born in 1847, a native of Petersburg, Virginia.  Little is known of his early life, freedom status, or education. He apparently moved to Pennsylvania before the outbreak of the Civil War.

White later reported serving as a Civil War private in a Pennsylvania volunteer unit—recorded as Company G of the 13th Pennsylvania Regiment, which was not an African American unit—and was wounded in 1864. After the War, he resettled in Halifax County, North Carolina, where he worked as a carpenter and became active in the Republican party. Appointed as a justice of the peace (1868, 1873, and 1877–1878), and as a magistrate in Halifax County in 1877, he was elected as a county commissioner between 1870 and 1874.  He owned $300 in personal property in 1870, according to that year’s U.S. census. 

He was elected as a Republican to four terms in the N.C. House from Halifax County, winning elections in 1874, 1876, 1878, and 1886, and serving in the 1874, 1877, 1879m and 1887 sessions of the General Assembly. His committee assignments included Military Affairs in 1874 and Claims in 1879.

During the 1874 session, he joined eight other black legislators in protesting the enactment of the so-called “Amnesty Bill” passed by the House in November 1874.  He was also one of 10 black legislators—joining white Republicans—to sign a formal protest against the earlier expulsion of newly-seated Republican House member J. Williams Thorne of Warren County, on grounds of allegedly not believing in God. He was one of 28 Republican legislators (11 of them black) to vote against expelling Thorne.

He and his first wife, Lucy A. White, had at least four sons: William, Robert, James, and Shadrack White. After her death, he was married to Margaret White in about 1887, according to the 1900 census, and they had at least seven more children, including sons Arthur and Paul, and daughters Lillie, and Emily.

White’s death date and place of interment are unknown.  He is presumed to have died in Halifax County, sometime after 1910, the last year he was listed in the U.S. census.

Next time: More tales of North Carolina’s 19th-century African American legislators