born Nov. 13, 1837, Florence, Ala., U.S.
died May 31, 1883, Montgomery, Ala.
U.S. politician.
The son of a slave and a wealthy planter, he was educated in Canada and Scotland. After the American Civil War he returned to Alabama, where he became a successful cotton planter and a delegate to the state's first Republican convention. Serving in the U.S. House of Representatives (1873–75) during Reconstruction , he worked for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. He was later collector of internal revenue in Alabama's second district, and he remained active as a labour organizer and publisher of the Montgomery Sentinel .