Robert Brown Elliott (abt. 1842 - 1884)

Born about 11 Aug 1842 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom [uncertain]

Died 9 Aug 1884 at about age 41 in New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, United States

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Biography

Robert Elliott is Notable.

Robert Brown Elliott was a politician in South Carolina. He served in the United States House of Representatives for South Carolina's 3rd district from 1871-1874.^[1]

Robert was born on August 11, 1842, and the most recent scholarship accepts it was likely to West Indian parents in Liverpool, England. However, the circumstances of Robert Brown Elliott’s early life are enigmatic. He claimed he was born in Boston and attended public schools in England, graduating with honors from Britain’s prestigious Eton College in 1859. He further asserted that he had worked for a famous London barrister before returning to the United States in 1861 to join the Union Navy. Elliott later attributed a lifelong limp to a battle wound. Other evidence indicates that his parents were originally from South Carolina and that the Elliott family escaped slavery on the Underground Railroad to a northern state. Still other sources suggest Elliott was born in the West Indies and spent his early years there. Elliott’s version of his origins cannot be corroborated, and recent scholarship indicates that the bright and ambitious young man may have invented his American citizenship and embellished his credentials in 1867 to establish his eligibility and credibility as a candidate for political office. Elliott’s mysterious background is discussed at length by his chief biographer.^{[2] [3] [4]}

He received a public school education in England and learned a typesetter’s trade. Elliott likely served in the British Navy, arriving on a warship in Boston around 1867. Historical records show that in late 1867 Robert Elliott lived in Charleston, South Carolina, where he was an associate editor for the South Carolina Leader, a freedmen’s newspaper owned by future Representative Richard H. Cain. Elliott married Grace Lee, a free individual from Boston or Charleston, sometime before 1870. The couple had no children.^[5]

Robert Elliott was intellectually gifted and well–educated. He often quoted classical literature and demonstrated facility with several languages. He quickly dove into Reconstruction–Era Republican politics in his new South Carolina home, emerging as a leading figure at the 1868 state constitutional convention. One of 78 black delegates at the convention, he advocated compulsory public education (although he opposed school integration) and helped defeat the imposition of a poll tax and a literacy test for voters. Later in 1868, while serving as the only black member of the Barnwell County board of commissioners, Elliott was elected to the state house of representatives.

The next year he was appointed assistant adjutant-general; he was the first African-American commanding general of the South Carolina National Guard. As part of his job, he helped form a state militia to fight the Ku Klux Klan.

Elliott was elected as a Republican to the Forty-second United States Congress, defeating Democrat John E. Bacon. He was re-elected to the Forty-third United States Congress, defeating Democrat William H. McCann. In Congress in April 1871 he gave a notable speech on the "Bill to Enforce the Provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution", also known as the "Ku Klux Bill". He again "delivered a celebrated speech" in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. He resigned on November 1, 1874, to serve as sheriff and fight political corruption in South Carolina. He served again in the South Carolina House of Representatives, where he was elected as Speaker of the House.

He ran successfully for South Carolina Attorney General in 1876. In the state elections that year, white Democrats regained dominance of the state legislature. The following year, 1877, when the last of the federal troops were withdrawn from South Carolina, he was forced out of office.

He continued to be involved in politics, working on then-Treasury Secretary John Sherman's campaign for President in 1880, and was a delegate to the 1880 Republican National Convention. In January 1881 he was part of a black delegation that met with President James Garfield to protest the lack of civil and political rights in the South.

In 1879, he was appointed a customs inspector for the Treasury Department in Charleston, South Carolina. He contracted malaria while working in that capacity on a trip to Florida. In 1881, he was transferred to New Orleans, and in 1882 he was dismissed. In New Orleans he again attempted to practice law, but found few clients. Impoverished, he died in New Orleans on August 9, 1884.

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia contributors. "Robert Brown Elliott." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
2. ↑ Peggy Lamson The Glorious Failure: Black Representative Robert Brown Elliott and the Reconstruction in South Carolina (New York: Norton, 1973): 22–33.
3. ↑ Peggy Lamson “Elliott, Robert Brown,” Dictionary ofAmerican Negro Biography (New York: Norton, 1982): 210–211.
4. ↑ Stephen Middleton ed., Black Congressmen During Reconstruction:A Documentary Sourcebook (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002): 85–86.
5. ↑ The identity of Elliott’s wife also is mysterious. Though Elliott addressed Grace L. Elliott in a letter as “my dear wife,” other sources indicate Elliott’s wife was Nancy Fat. Others conclude that Nancy Fat was Elliott’s mistress; see Lamson, The Glorious Failure: 31–33.

• Black Americans in Congress - Robert Brown Elliott: Representative, 1871–1874, Republican from South Carolina http://history.house.gov/People/Listing/E/ELLIOTT,-Robert-Brown-(E000128)/

See also:

• Wikidata: Item Q471264