Edwin Belcher

Edwin Belcher (born 1845) was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, a Freedmen Bureau official in Monroe County, Georgia after the war, and then a state senator in the Georgia Legislature representing Wilkes County, Georgia during the Reconstruction Era.

Military service

Edwin Belcher reportedly served in a white regiment and was twice taken prisoner during the Civil War. When his background was discovered he reportedly said he did his duty like any other soldier.[1]

Political office

Belcher was also appointed an assessor of revenue for Georgia's third district by U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant and was later appointed by Grant as postmaster in Macon, Georgia.[1] After the 1868 election the legislature refused to seat African Americans. More than two dozen were turned away but Belcher and a few others were allowed to remain because they had light complexions and it could not be proved they were 1/8 or more "Negro".[2] The others allowed to remain in their elected offices were Madison Davis of Clarke County, F. H. Fyall of Macon County and Thomas P. Beard of Richmond County.[3]

Law career

In 1872 he graduated from Howard University's law school (founded in 1869) and was admitted to the bar in Washington D.C.[1] His brother Eugene R. Belcher was also part of one of the earliest Howard University Law School classes.[4][5]

In 1878, Belcher wrote a letter introducing himself to William Lloyd Garrison.[6] In the letter he says he was "born the slave of my father".

Legacy

Drew S. Days III, former Solicitor General of the United States, is a descendant of the Belcher family.[7]

References
  1. Smith, J.C.; Marshall, T. (1999). Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944. University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated. p. 249. ISBN 9780812216851. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  2. "This Day in Athens: 27 September 1833: Legislator Madison Davis Is Born". accheritage.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  3. Reidy, J.P. (2000). From Slavery to Agrarian Capitalism in the Cotton Plantation South: Central Georgia, 1800-1880. University of North Carolina Press. p. 304. ISBN 9780807864067. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  4. Burke, W.L.; Finkelman, P.; Huebner, T.S. (2017). All for Civil Rights: African American Lawyers in South Carolina, 1868–1968. University of Georgia Press. p. 47. ISBN 9780820350998. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  5. Smith, J.C.; Marshall, T. (1999). Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944. University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated. p. 218. ISBN 9780812216851. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  6. "Letter from Edwin Belcher, Augusta, Ga, to William Lloyd Garrison, April 16th, 1878". Digital Commonwealth. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  7. Smith, J. Clay, Jr. (January 6, 1994). "Howard University School of Law: One Hundred and Twenty Five Years". Retrieved 2020-02-23.
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