More tales of North Carolina's 19th-century African American legislators
Part 2: The Reconstruction-era General Assembly
Earlier this year, I began introducing 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 more of the legislators who served in the sessions of the General Assembly chosen during the last years of Reconstruction, between 1870 and 1877:
William D. Newsome (1822-1916), of Ahoskie, served one term in the N.C. House of Representatives from Hertford County as a Republican, elected in 1870. Born free in 1822, probably in Hertford County, his middle name may have been Dempsey, although he was known locally as “Uncle Dave.” Little is known about his early life, except that he appears to have been educated privately before the Civil War, and later became a schoolteacher, farmer, and very prosperous storekeeper.
During the Civil War, there are indications that Newsome may have served briefly as a schoolteacher for fugitive slave schoolchildren on Union-occupied Roanoke Island; he is also reported to have enlisted in the Union army during the period from 1863 to 1865.
Upon his return to Hertford County after the War, he later helped build a schoolhouse at Pleasant Plains and served as its first teacher. He was also active in the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Church Association, serving as a Sunday school teacher.
He also became active in Republican Party politics, after attending the State Equal Rights League Convention of Freedmen in October 1866, and serving on its board of managers; he became an officer in the State Equal Rights League. A Hertford County commissioner from 1868 to 1870, Newsome was also appointed as a justice of the peace in 1868.
In 1870, he was selected by county Republicans as their nominee for the county’s seat in the N.C. House of Representatives, and was elected to the 1870-1872 session of the General Assembly. He was one of 17 black legislators who signed the “Address to the Colored People of North Carolina” protesting the impeachment of Gov. William W. Holden, dated December 19, 1870, and published in the Raleigh Sentinel, on December 30, 1870.
After leaving the legislature, he remained active in party politics, but devoted his energies to business interests, acquiring large amounts of land and running a very profitable retail store. In 1904, he was selected as an alternate delegate from the Second Congressional District to the G.O.P. national convention, which renominated incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt.
At the time of his death, the 93-year-old Newsome was described in the Ahoskie News-Herald as “a remarkable old man, and highly respected by both races. He was one of the wealthiest men in the county … and in complete control of his faculties” up to the day of his death, despite his advanced age.
Newsome appears to have been married more than once, although details of his first marriage are not clear. What is known is that Alice A. Reynolds Newsome, who died of pneumonia one day earlier than her husband (January 15, 1916), was more than 30 years his junior. Both are buried in the family cemetery in Union Township, outside Ahoskie, along with two young children and other family members.
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John R. Page (1840-1881), of Edenton, served one term in the N.C. House of Representatives from Chowan County as a Republican, elected in 1870. Page was born to an unnamed enslaved mother on February 29, 1840, and owned by the prominent family of Matthew and Henrietta Collins Page, who resided at the large local mansion called Pembroke. Little else is known of his early life or education, except that he was literate.
As an adult, he became a storekeeper and sold fish; he was also a house carpenter. Page was a Chowan County delegate to the State Equal Rights League Convention of Freedmen in Raleigh in October 1866, and was employed as a speaker by the Republican Congressional Committee in 1867. In the 1870 U.S. census, he was listed as owning $4,121 in real estate.
In 1870, Page was nominated by Chowan Republicans for the county’s seat in the N.C. House of Representatives, and elected later that year. In the 1870-1872 session of the General Assembly, he was appointed to the House Committee on Internal Improvements.
He was one of 17 black legislators who signed the “Address to the Colored People of North Carolina” protesting the impeachment of Gov. William W. Holden, dated December 19, 1870, and published in the Raleigh Sentinel on December 30, 1870.
After completing his term in the legislature, Page was elected as a delegate to the 1875 state constitutional convention. In 1876, he was selected as an alternate delegate from the Second Congressional District to the G.O.P. national convention, which nominated Rutherford B. Hayes for the U.S. presidency.
John R. Page, who served in NCGA from 1870 to 1872. Photo courtesy Historic Edenton State Historic Site
He was also a prominent local Mason; the Edenton Fisherman and Farmer of October 10, 1890, noted that the “John R. Page Lodge” F. & A. Y. Masons, No. 13, had been “established about 20 years ago and has a large membership.”
According to the 1870 census, his wife’s name was Jane Page. Their family included one daughter, Nelly, and four teenaged male relatives: Elijah, John, Stephen, and Thomas Page.
Page died of natural causes in Edenton on January 8, 1881, and is buried in Vine Oak Cemetery.
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John M. Paschall (1826-1886), of Warrenton, served one term in the N. C. Senate from the 19th District (Warren County) as a Republican, elected in 1874. Paschall was born in about 1826 in Warren County, probably to an enslaved mother. Little else is known of his childhood or education, except that he was literate; he became a farmer and carpenter.
He was appointed as a justice of the peace in 1868 and 1874. In 1870, Paschall was listed in the U.S. census as owning $435 in real estate and $600 worth of personal property. He served as a Warren County commissioner in 1872, and was appointed as a Warren County justice of the peace in 1873 and as a magistrate in April 1883.
In 1874, he was selected by Warren County Republicans as their nominee for the N.C. Senate, and served one term in the 1874-1875 session of the General Assembly. He did not seek reelection.
He married Mary J. Wright in 1866 in Warren County. According to the 1870 census, Paschall, his wife Mary, 36, son William, and four daughters—Martha, Roda, Ann, Alice, and Polly—lived in Nutbush Township. In the 1880 census, the Paschalls showed a family of nine children.
Paschall reportedly died on April 1, 1886, in Henderson. His place of interment is unknown.
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William H. Reavis (1841/1842-1901?), of Henderson, served one term in the N.C. House of Representatives from Granville County as a Republican, elected in 1870. Reavis was born in 1841/1842, in Granville County, probably to an enslaved mother. Little is known of his early life or education, except that he was literate. He became a farmer and painter.
After the end of the War, Reavis became active in Republican Party politics. He was a Granville County delegate to the State Equal Rights League Convention of Freedmen in Raleigh in October 1866. In 1869, he was a constable in Granville, and owned $100 personal property in 1870, according to that year’s U.S. census.
In 1870, Granville County Republicans selected Reavis as one of their nominees for the county’s seats in the N. C. House of Representatives. He was subsequently elected, and served on the House Committee on Salaries and Fees in the 1870-1872 session of the General Assembly. He was one of 17 black legislators to sign the “Address to the Colored People of North Carolina,” protesting the impeachment of Gov. William W. Holden, dated December 19, 1870, and published in the Raleigh Sentinel on December 30, 1870.
The names of his wife and children, if any, are not recorded. He was listed as single in the 1900 census, when he was living in Henderson, now located in Vance County.
Reavis’s death date and place of interment are unknown. He is presumed to have died sometime after 1901, presumably in Vance County.
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Charles Smith (1824?-1899?), of Halifax County, served one term in the N.C. House of Representatives from Halifax County as a Republican, elected in 1870. Smith was likely born to an enslaved mother in Halifax County, in about 1824 Little is known about his early life or education; he was described only as an illiterate farm laborer.
Smith was a Halifax County delegate to the State Equal Rights Convention of Freedmen in October 1866. He soon became active in the Halifax Republican Party, and was appointed as a county magistrate in 1869.
After being selected by Halifax Republicans as one of their nominees for the county’s seats in the N.C. House of Representatives, Smith was elected to serve in the 1870-1872 session of the General Assembly, and was appointed to the House Committee on Counties, Cities, Towns, and Townships. He was one of 17 black legislators to sign the “Address to the Colored People of North Carolina” protesting the impeachment of Gov. William W. Holden, dated December 19, 1870, and published in the Raleigh Sentinel on December 30, 1870.
In 1876, he was chosen as a delegate to the Second District G.O.P. congressional nominating convention, which nominated former Governor Curtis H. Brogden for the district’s seat in Congress.
The names of his wife and children, if any, are not recorded. Smith’s death date and place of interment are unknown. He is presumed to have died in Halifax County sometime before 1900.
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Richard Tucker (1818?–1881), of New Bern, served one term in the N.C. House of Representatives from Craven County as a Republican, elected in 1870; and one term in the N.C. Senate as a Republican from the Eighth District (Craven County), elected in 1874. Tucker was born to an enslaved mother in 1817 or 1818 in North Carolina, almost certainly in Craven County, and was apparently educated privately by his owner.
As an adult, he became an undertaker and carpenter. A Craven County delegate to the State Equal Rights League Convention of Freedmen in Raleigh in October 1866, he was appointed as one of five black justices of the peace in Craven County in 1868, and reappointed in 1874.
After the War, he also became active in the new Republican party, which selected him as one of their nominees for the country’s seats in the N.C. House of Representatives in 1870. After being elected, he served one term in the 1870-1872 session of the General Assembly, and was one of 17 black legislators who signed the “Address to the Colored People of North Carolina” protesting the impeachment of Gov. William W. Holden, dated December 19, 1870, and published in the Raleigh Sentinel on December 30, 1870.
In 1874, Tucker was the party’s nominee for the Eighth District of the N.C. Senate, and was elected to serve in the 1874-1875 session of the General Assembly.
In 1870, he owned $1,000 in real estate and $500 in personal property, according to that year’s U.S. census. He was among the incorporators of the New Bern Co-operative Land and Building Association, chartered by the N. C. General Assembly in 1869.
Tucker was married three times. With his first wife, Emeline Tucker, he reportedly had as many as 15 children, including Frank, Edward, and Amelia. In the 1870 census, he was recording as living with his second wife, Celia, and four young children. In the 1880 census, he was recorded as living with a third wife, Annie.
Tucker died in New Bern in August 1881, and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery. His death notice in the New Bern Daily Commercial News (August 13, 1881) identified him as a former state senator and “a trusted servant of Judge [William] Gaston [1778-1844],” long regarded as one of the state’s most distinguished jurists.
Next time: More tales of North Carolina’s 19th-century African American legislators