Hiram Rhoades Revels

From Freepedia

Hiram Rhoades Revels (September 27, 1827 – January 16, 1901) was the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate representing Mississippi.

Revels was born free in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was taught by a black woman for his early education.He grew up in Lincolnton, North Carolina ,having gone there in 1838 to live with his brother, Elias B. Revels.He was apprenticed as a barber in his brother's shop. His brother was a merchant and slave owner. He had another brother living in Lincolnton called Absolom. Elias Revels died in 1841.Mary Revels, his sister -in- law turned over all her assets before she remarried . Hiram was the town barber until 1845 when he went to Baltimore and was ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He returned to Lincolnton and sold his business. Then he attended a Quaker seminary in Indiana and a black seminary in Ohio. He went to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and became an African Methodist Episcopal Church minister in 1845.

Revels taught and preached in the old Northwest Territory states. Then he organized black Union regiments in Maryland and Missouri. He was affiliated with the Freedman's Bureau, which may have led to his move to Mississippi. There he served as a minister and on the city council of Natchez. In 1870, Revels was elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first African American senator, filling the seat which had been vacated by former Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He served for one year.

External links

• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• State Library of North Carolina